I '^6?' 


A  Historical  Commentary  on  St.  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians 


MAY  I?""  1SS 


A  HISTORICAL  COMMENTARY 

ON  ST.  PAUL'S  EPISTLE 

TO  THE  GALATIANS 


by 
Wm.  M.  Ramsay 


BAKER  BOOK  HOUSE 

Grand  Rapids,  Michigan 

1965 


Library  of  Congress  Catalog  Card  Number:    65-23751 


Reprinted  1965  by 
Baker  Book  House  Company 


Reprinted  from 

the  1900  edition 

Printed  in  New  York  by 

G.P.  Putnams  Sons 


PHOTOLITHOPRINTED   BY   GUSHING  -  MALLOY.    ING. 

ANN   ARBOR,    MIGHIGAN,    UNITED   STATES  OF   AMERIGA 

1965 


PREFACE. 

The  attempt  is  made  in  this  book  to  show  how 
much  Hght  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  throws 
on  contemporary  history  in  the  widest  sense — the 
history  cf  religion,  society,  thought,  manners,  educa- 
tion— in  the  Eastern  Provinces  of  the  Empire.  The 
introductory  study  of  society  and  religion  in  Central 
Asia  Minor  may  seem  perhaps  too  elaborate  ;  but  it 
could  not  be  put  more  briefly  if  any  adequate  con- 
ception were  to  be  given  of  the  forces  acting  on  the 
minds  of  Paul's  Galatian  hearers. 

The  Commentary  is  intended  to  be  complete  in 
itself,  able  to  be  read  and  fully  understood  without 
continually  looking  back  to  the  Introduction.  The 
Commentary  was  written  first,  and  published  in  the 
Expositor,  June,  1898 — September,  1899.  Many 
passages  have  now  been  completely  rewritten  (after 
the  Introduction  had  been  composed),  three  chapters 
have  been  suppressed  and  eleven  added. 

My  first  intention  was  tacitly  to  carry  out  the 
South  Galatian  Theory,  leaving  the  reader  to  con- 
trast the  flood  of  light  thrown  on  South  Galatia  by 
the  Epistle  with  its  barrenness  as  regards  North 
Galatia.     But  it  might  be  stigmatised  as  unscholarly 


viii  Preface 

if  no  reference  were  made  to  the  view  still  widely 
assumed  as  true  in  Germany  and  wherever  fashion- 
able German  views  (yet  see  p.  316)  are  taken  as  final. 
Hence  I  am,  as  Lightfoot  says,  "distracted  between 
the  fear  of  saying  too  much  and  the  fear  of  saying 
too  little  ".  Probably  I  say  too  little  ;  but  the  cause 
(an  accident  preventing  work)  is  stated  on  p.  478. 
The  same  cause  prevented  the  proper  final  revision 
of  proofs,  which  may  perhaps  have  left  some  errors 
unremoved. 

In  former  works  I  applied  simply  the  principles 
of  Imperial  history  learned  from  Prof.  Mommsen. 
On  this  book  Prof.  Mitteis's  Imperial  Law  a7id 
National  Law  [Reicksrecht  und  Volksrechl)  has 
left  a  strong  impression.  His  title  emphasises  the 
opposition  between  Roman  and  National,  which  I 
have  been  for  years  entreating  the  North  Galatian 
champions  to  notice.  As  to  my  nov^l  theory  of 
Seleucid  law  in  Galatians,  ignoring  Halmel,  those 
who  want  German  authority  for  everything  may  find 
it  in  Prof.  Mitteis's  words  :  jedenfalls  wird  audi 
durch  Ihre  Ausfiihrungen  dasjenige  was  Lialmel 
"  das  rom.  Recht  im  Galaterbrief"  sagt,  aus  dem 
Feld  geschlagen. 

We  must  all  study  German  method,  and  practise 
it  day  and  night ;  but  the  first  principle  in  German 
method  is  to  disregard  authority  (even  German)  and 
follow  after  truth. 

I  have  not  seen  Mr.  Askwith's  recent  work  on 
the  Galatian  Question  (see  p.  478). 


CONTENTS. 

HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION  : 

PAGE 

Society  and  Religion  in  Central  Asia  Minor  in  the  Time  of 

St.  Paul 1-234 

Section  i.  Preliminary      .-.-....-i 

2.  North  Galatia :  Land  and  Peoples 12 

3.  Pre-Galatic  History  of  North  Galatia       -         -         -         -  19 

4.  The  Pre-Gaulish  Inhabitants  of  Galatia  -         -         -         -  26 

5.  The  Religion  of  Asia  Minor 35 

6.  Settlement  of  the  Gauls  in  Galatia 45 

7.  The  History  of  Galatia  B.C.  232-64           ■         -         ■         -  53 

8.  The  North  Galatian  State         -         -         -         -         -         -  72 

9.  The  Religion  of  North  Galatia          .....  86 

10.  Galatia  as  a  Roman  Client  State      -----  95 

11.  Origin  of  the  Province  Galatia          .....  103 

12.  History  of  the  Province  Galatia,  B.C.  25 — a.d.  50     -         -  113 

13.  Civilisation  of  North  Galatia  under  the  Roman  Empire    -  128 

14.  Language  and  Letters  in  North  Galatia  -         -         -         -  147 

15.  The  Influence  of  Christianity  in  North  Galatia         -         -  165 
i6.  Later  History  of  the  Province  Galatia      -         -         .         .  175 

17.  The  Cities  and  the  Peoples  of  South  Galatia   -         -         -  180 

18.  The  Jews  in  South  Galatia 189 

19.  Pisidian  Antioch 197 

20.  Iconium  --..-....-  214 

21.  Lystra     --..-.....  223 

22.  Derbe 228 

23.  Summary          .........  233 

b 


X  Contents 

PAGE 

HISTORICAL  COMMENTARY 237-27* 

§  I.  The  Introductory  Address 237 

§  II.  The  Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch        -  238 

§  III.  Persons  mentioned  in  the  Epistle         ....  246 

§  IV.  Relation  of  Paul  to  Barnabas 248 

§  V.  "I  Marvel" 249 

§  VI.  "Ye  are  so  quickly  Removing"  -         -         -         -         -  251 

§  VII.  Cause  of  the  Galatian  Movement         ....  254 

§  VIII.  Paul  as  a  Judaistic  Preacher,  I  6-10     ....  256 

§  IX.  Another  Gospel,  I  6-7  ......  260 

§  X.  "  Seeking  to  please  Men,"  I  10 266 

§  XI.  Tone  of  Address  to  the  Galatians         ....  267 

§  XII.  The  Gospel  which  ye  Received 269 

§  XIII.  Dates  of  the  Autobiography 271 

§  XIV.  The  Province  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  I  21        -         -         -  275 

§  XV.  The  Klimata  of  Syria  and  Cilicia  ....  278 

§  XVI.  The  Visits  to  Jerusalem,  I  18,  II  i  ff   -        -        -        -  280. 

§  XVII.  The  First  Visit  to  Jerusalem,  I  18-20  -         -         -         -  283 

§  XVIII.  The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem,  II  i-io       -         -         -  285 

§  XIX.  Limits  and  Purpose  of  the  Autobiography  ...  301 

§  XX.  St.  Peter  in  Antioch -        -  304 

§  XXI.  Spirit  of  Chapters  III,  IV    -         -         -         -         -         -  306 

§  XXIL  The  Address  "Galatians,"  in  III  I      ....  308 

§  XXIII.  Galatia  the  Province 314 

§  XXIV.  Galatians  and  Gauls 318 

§  XXV.  St.  Paul's  Roman  Point  of  View 320 

§  XXVI.  Foolish  Galatians 321 

§  XXVII.  The  Two  Stages,  III  3        -        -  ...  324. 

§  XXVIII.  The  Marvellous  Powers,  III  2-5 326 

§  XXIX.  The  Teaching  of  Paul 328 

§  XXX.  The  Message  to  the  Galatians 329 

§  XXXI.  Sons  of  Abraham,  III  6-9    -        -        -        -        -        -  337 

§  XXXII.  Oi  iK  v'umws        ........  3^. 

§  XXXIII.  A  Man's  Will,  Diatheke,  III  15-18       -        -         -         -  349 

§  XXXIV.  The  Use  of  Dia^/r«)fe^  in  the  Pauline  Epistles        -         -  356- 

§  XXXV.  Greek  Law  in  Galatian  Cities 370 


Contents  xi 

PAGE 

§  XXXVI.  The  Argument  from  Seed,  III  i6         -         -         -         -  375 

§  XXXVII.  Function  of  the  Law,  III  19-22 377 

§  XXXVIII.  The  Mediator,  III  20 379 

§  XXXIX.  Law  the  Child-Guardian,  III  23-25      -         -         -         -  381 

§  XL.  Equality  in  the  Perfect  Church,  III  26-30    -         -         -  385 

K  %  XLI.  The  Infant  Son  and  Heir,  Gal.  IV.  1-7        -         -         -  391 

§  XLII.  The  Rudiments  of  the  World,  Gal.  IV  3  and  9     -         -  394 

§  XLIII.  He  sent  forth  His  Son,  Gal.  IV  4         -         -         -         -  39^^ 

§  XLIV.  The  Address  at  Pisidian  Antioch          ...         -  399 

§  XLV.  Paul's  Visits  to  Galatia  in  Acts 401 

§  XLVI.  Paul's  Visits  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia       -         -         -  4^5 

§  XLVII.  Cause  of  the  First  Galatian  Visit          -         -         -         -  4^7 

§  XLVIII.  The  Thorn  in  the  Flesh       -         -         -         -         ^         -  422 

§  XLIX.  Sequence  of  Thought  in  IV  12-20        -         -         -         -  428 

§  L.  The  Allegory  of  Hagar  and  Sarah,  IV  21,  V  i     -         -  430 

§  LI.  The  Conclusion,  V  i 434 

§  LII.  Personal  Recapitulation,  V  2-12           ...         -  435 

§  LIII.  The  Whole  Law,  V  2-4 44° 

§  LIV.  Freedom  and  Love,  V  13-15 44^ 

§  LV.  The  Spiritual  Life,  V  16-26 445 

§  LVI.  The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities         -         -         -  44^ 

§  LVII.  The  Unforgiving  Phrygians,  VI  1-5     -         -         -        -  454 

§  LVI  1 1.  Voluntary  Liberality  to  Teachers,  VI  6-10            -         -  45^ 

§  LIX.  Was  there  a  Letter  from  the  Galatians  ?      -         -         -  461 

§  LX.  The  Large  Letters,  VI  11-17 4^4 

§  LXI.  The  Parting  Message 4^7 

§  LXII.  The  Concluding  Blessing  and  Denunciation,  VI  16-17  470 

§LXIII.  The  Stigmata  of  Jesus,  VI  17 47* 

§  LXIV.  Result  of  the  Epistle 474 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION. 

Society   and  Religion    in    Central  Asia    Minor  in 
the  time  of  St.  Paul. 

SECTION  I. 

PRELIMINARY. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  a  document  of  the  highest 
importance  for  students  of  history.  Not  merely  is  it  a 
peculiarly  important  authority  for  all  who  study  the  early 
stages  in  the  Christianisation  of  the  Roman  Empire  :  it 
also  throws  much  light  on  the  condition  and  society  of  one 
of  the  Eastern  Roman  Provinces  during  the  first  century 
of  the  Empire — a  difficult  subject  and  an  almost  unknown 
land. 

The  study  of  this  document  is  encumbered  with  a  great 
preliminary  difficulty.  It  is  not  certain  who  were  the  per- 
sons addressed.  While  some  scholars  maintain  that  the 
"  Churches  of  Galatia,"  to  whom  the  Epistle  is  addressed, 
were  planted  in  the  four  cities  of  Southern  Galatia,  Derbe, 
Lystra,  Iconium,  and  Pisidian  Antioch,  others  assert  that 
those  Churches  were  situated  in  North  Galatia.  These  two 
opposite  opinions  are  conveniently  designated  as  the  South- 
Galatian  and  the  North-Galatian  Theory. 

This  doubt  as  to  the  destination  of  the  Epistle  hardly 


Historical  Inh'oductio  n . 


affects  the  study  of  its  dogmatic  or  doctrinal  value,  with 
which  we  are  not  concerned. 

Even  as  regards  its  historical  value,  small  importance 
might  seem  on  a  first  superficial  view  to  attach  to  the 
question  whether  the  Churches  addressed  were  situated  in 
the  south  of  the  province  or  in  the  north.  The  distance  of 
Pessinus,  the  nearest  in  the  northern  group,  from  Iconium 
in  the  southern  is  only  about  120  miles.  From  Pessinus  to 
Antioch  is  about  30  miles  less  as  the  crow  flies,  but  almost 
as  much  as  the  traveller  goes. 

Similarly,  the  question  has  been  discussed  whether  the 
so-called  "  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  "  was  addressed  to  the 
Church  of  Ephesus  or  of  Laodicea,  or  is  a  general  Asian 
letter.  The  distance  by  road  from  Ephesus  to  Laodicea 
was  91^  Roman  miles.  But  it  makes  no  very  serious  dif- 
ference even  to  the  historical  student  whether  the  letter 
was  addressed  to  the  one  or  the  other  city :  no  question 
as  regards  the  time  of  composition,  or  the  order  of  Paul's 
travels,  or  the  history  of  the  Church  as  a  whole,  is  affected 
by  the  doubt. 

But  the  doubt  as  regards  the  Galatian  Churches  stands 
on  a  quite  different  footing.  The  date  when  the  letter  was 
composed,  the  order  and  facts  of  Paul's  travels,  several 
important  questions  of  general  Church  history,  are  all 
affected  by  the  doubt.  To  the  student  of  Roman  history 
and  society  there  are  also  serious  differences  between  the 
two  theories.  The  North-Galatian  cities  belong  to  quite  a 
different  line  of  development  from  the  South-Galatian.  See 
Sections  15,  17. 

In  this  case,  as  in  all  other  historical  questions,  the  doubt 
is  due  to  insufficiency  of  knowledge.  The  countries  both 
of  North  and  of  South  Galatia  are  most  obscure.     A  good 


Section  i :    Preliminary. 


deal  has  been  done  by  modern  scholars  to  illuminate  the 
history  of  North  Galatia  in  the  pre-Roman  period  by  col- 
lecting and  comparing  the  references  in  literature  ;  but  little 
has  been  done  for  the  Roman  period.  South  Galatia  was 
no  more  than  a  name,  and  hardly  even  a  name,  until  within 
the  last  few  years. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that,  in  a  question  so  im- 
portant and  so  obscure,  all  investigators  who  approached 
the  subject  would  have  begun  by  carefully  studying  the 
condition  of  both  districts,  North  and  South  Galatia ; 
and  thereafter  would  have  reached  a  conclusion  based  on 
adequate  knowledge. 

That  method,  however,  has  not  been  practised.  The 
commentators  on  the  Epistle,  with  the  single  exception  of 
Lightfoot,  have  had  little  inclination  to  the  historical  side 
of  their  subject.  The  dogmatic  and  doctrinal  overpowered 
every  other  aspect  in  their  view.  Where  they  touched 
on  the  historical  questions  that  are  involved,  they  did  so 
unwillingly  and  as  briefly  as  possible.  As  a  rule,  having 
made  up  their  minds  beforehand  that  Paul  wrote  to  the 
Churches  of  North  Galatia,  they  took  a  hasty  glance 
into  the  history  of  the  country  and  people,  and  selected  a 
few  facts  that  seemed  to  suit  their  foregone  conclusion, 
when  taken  apart  from  the  surroundings.  In  their  prepos- 
session any  facts  that  were  unfavourable  to  their  view 
remained  unnoticed.  They  did  not  even  observe  that 
Juliopolis,  which  many  of  them  pitched  upon  as  the  site 
of  one  of  Paul's  Churches,  was  a  city  of  Bithynia,  not  of 
Galatia.^ 

^It  was  attached  to  Galatia  about  a.d.  295;  and  most  of  our 
authorities  for  the  northern  limits  of  Galatia  are  later  than  that 
date.     Hence  the  error. 


Historical  Introduction. 


Even  as  regards  Lightfoot,  his  historical  faculty  is  not 
shown  at  its  highest  level  in  his  Galatian  commentary.  He 
began  his  great  series  of  Pauline  commentaries  with  per- 
haps the  most  difficult  Epistle,  certainly  the  one  that  is 
most  widely  decisive  as  regards  Pauline  history.  It  might 
have  been  a  more  fortunate  choice  if  he  had  first  practised 
his  method  on  one  or  two  Epistles  which  determine  fewer 
questions  beyond  their  own  scope,  and  then  applied  his 
perfectly  trained  powers  to  Galatians.  Comparing  his 
introductions  to  Galatians  and  Colossians,  one  sees  how 
much  more  thorough  and  well-balanced  the  latter  is.  In 
his  Galatians  he  devotes  a  quite  disproportionate  space  to 
the  question  whether  the  European  invaders  of  Asia  Minor 
belonged  to  a  Germanic  or  a  Celtic  stock :  the  answer  to 
that  question  makes  practically  no  difference  to  the  right 
understanding  of  the  Epistle. 

It  is  remarkable,  considering  how  delicate  the  balance  of 
evidence  seemed  to  him  and  how  much  he  was  able  to  say 
on  the  opposite  side  in  several  places,  that  he  seems  never 
to  have  re-opened  the  case.  The  reason  doubtless  was  that 
no  new  evidence  became  available  until  the  last  years  of 
his  life.  The  study  of  Asia  Minor  is,  pre-eminently,  one 
in  which  the  scholar  at  present  must  never  consider  his 
opinion  final,  and  must  be  prepared  to  modify  and  change 
it  as  new  evidence  is  discovered.^ 

It  is  a  duty  here  at  the  outset  to  make  clear  my  attitude 
towards  that  great  scholar,  who  necessarily  will  be  so  often 
mentioned  in  the  following  pages.^  I  have  been  charged 
with  "  holding  up  to  ignominy  "  as  "  intellectually  or  morally 

^  See  below,  note  on  p.  lo. 

'^This  paragraph  is  adapted  from  Expositor,  May,  1896,  p.  344,  in 
answer  to  a  charge  made  in  the  preceding  number,  p.  254. 


Section  i :   Preliminary. 


discreditable "  his  opinion  on  points  on  which  we  differ. 
The  charge  is  peculiarly  painful  to  me.  For  Lightfoot's 
work  I  have  felt  and  often  expressed  to  friends  the  highest 
admiration  since  my  undergraduate  days  ;  for  his  personal 
kindness  to  me  as  a  beginner  in  the  path  of  learning  I  feel 
gratitude  that  grows  stronger  and  warmer  as  the  years  pass 
by.  But  his  immense  and  well-deserved  influence  is  now 
supporting  an  error,  which  could  only  have  arisen  in  his 
mind  about  an  unknown  land.  An  example  from  another 
topic  will  make  clear  my  relations  to  him  on  this  subject. 
In  the  traditional  epitaph  of  Avircius  Marcellus,  Lightfoot 
rightly  caught  the  ring  of  genuineness  amid  all  the  corrup- 
tions that  defaced  it.  Rightly  maintaining  its  authenticity, 
he  attempted  to  disprove  the  arguments  which  seemed  to 
older  scholars,  like  Tillemont  and  Garrucci,  to  be  conclu- 
sive proof  of  its  spuriousness  ;  but  his  discussion  of  the 
evidence  was  wrong  throughout.^  Fortunately  he  lived  to 
recognise  the  complete  change  which  better  knowledge  of 
the  country  necessitated  ;  and  in  the  latest  edition  he  cut 
out  the  whole  of  his  erroneous  discussion,  and  substituted 
a  brief  reference  to  the  real  facts  ;  yet,  had  he  died  a  few 
years  earlier,  I  should  have  had  to  struggle  long  against  the 
almost  universal  belief  in  England  that  his  discussion  of 
that  subject  rrfust  be  correct.  So  now,  had  his  life  been 
prolonged  a  few  years  more,  he  would  have  been  the  first 
to  see  (long  before  I  saw)  the  bearing  of  the  new  informa- 
tion about  Phrygia,  Lycaonia,  and  Galatia,  on  the  founda- 
tion of  the  early  Church  in  Asia  Minor ;  he  would  have 
himself  corrected  the  errors  about  the  history  and  geography 
of  these  countries  that  were  inevitable,  when   his  earlier 

^  See  his  edition  of  Colossians,  p.  54  ff. 


Historical  Introduction. 


works  were  written ;  and  I  should  never  have  been  com- 
pelled to  assume  the  position  of  criticising  him,  but  have 
been  free  to  be  in  external  appearance,  as  I  always  have 
been  in  reality,  his  humble  admirer. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  present  writer  has  maintained 
that  the  North-Galatian  Theory  is  seen  to  be  impossible, 
as  soon  as  one  makes  oneself  properly  acquainted  with  the 
history  and  character  of  the  people,  and  the  geography  of 
the  country.  That  theory  seemed  to  be  possible  only  so 
long  as  no  clear  conception  of  the  facts  existed  ;  but  when 
the  facts  were  collected  and  looked  at  in  their  entirety,  it 
lost  any  appearance  of  justification.  To  collect  the  his- 
torical and  antiquarian  evidence  bearing  on  the  question,  to 
try  to  show  Galatia  as  it  really  was  about  A.D.  50,  is  the 
proper  method  of  treating  this  subject. 

In  these  circumstances,  the  necessity  is  entailed  of  pre- 
fixing to  this  commentary  on  the  Epistle  a  careful  study 
of  a  district  where  the  Apostle  Paul  never  set  foot,  and  to 
which  he  never  wrote.  The  process  may  seem  strange  ; 
but  in  the  progress  towards  truth  the  first  step  is  often  the 
elimination  of  errors. 

Further,  it  may  appear  that  the  introductory  study  is 
too  elaborate,  even  if  it  had  been  devoted  solely  to  the 
country  where  St.  Paul  travelled  and  to  whose  people  he 
wrote.  But  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  dispose  of  an  in- 
veterate error  than  it  would  be  simply  to  illustrate  the 
Epistle,  if  the  task  were  encumbered  by  no  erroneous 
prejudice.     An  illustration  of  this  may  here  be  quoted  : — 

"In  every  department  of  historical  investigation,"  says 
Professor  R.  Engelmann,  the  distinguished  archaeologist, 
"  examples  may  be  quoted  to  show  how  long  errors  that 
have  once  established  themselves  in  the  ordinary  teaching 


Section  i :    Preliminary. 


may  last,  and  how  even  the  noblest  and  best  scholars  give 
themselves  the  toil  of  championing  them  and  demonstrating 
that  they  are  the  only  truths."  ^  He  goes  on  to  exemplify 
from  the  department  of  Greek  architecture  this  remarkable 
tendency  to  cling  to  an  error  that  one  has  been  taught  from 
childhood.  He  shows  how  the  view  that  Greek  temples  as 
a  rule  were  open  above  to  the  sky,  founded  on  a  mistrans- 
lation of  a  passage  of  Vitruvius  2  and  supported  by  mis- 
interpretation of  several  other  passages — though  vigor- 
ously combated  by  one  or  two  investigators  on  grounds 
that  are  now  seen  to  be  correct — established  itself  in 
general  opinion,  was  taught  in  every  school,  and  dominated 
archaeological  research  for  fifty  years.  Only  recently  has 
it  been  successfully  attacked  ;  and  some  time  must  pass 
before  it  disappears  from  the  lecture-room  and  the  ordinary 
manuals.  So  blinded  were  some  excellent  investigators 
by  the  prejudice  created  in  their  minds,  that  they  found  in 
the  modern  discoveries  of  the  last  twenty  years  conclusive 
demonstration  of  the  accepted  theory,  and  on  the  result 
of  modern  excavations  they  exultingly  declared  that  their 
few  opponents  were  demonstrated  to  be  strangers  to  the 
realities  of  Greek  Art. 

Similarly,  the  North-Galatian  Theory,  which  was  possible 
only  because  of  the  obscurity  of  the  subject  and  the  general 
misapprehension  of  historical  facts,  established  itself  in 
current  opinion  and  was  taught  in  every  school  and  in  all 
ordinary  text-books.  Though  always  denied  and  contested 
by  a  few,  yet  it  was  practically  master  of  the  field  of 
instruction  ;  and  thus  it  could  create  a  presumption  in  its 

^  Quoted  from  his  admirable  resume  in   Vossische  Zeitung,  Beilage, 
26th  March,  2nd  April,  1899, 
'III  I. 


8  Historical  Introduction. 

favour  in  almost  every  mind.  The  vast  majority  of  readers 
never  heard  of  any  other  theory ;  and  it  became  known  to 
individuals  usually  through  some  contemptuous  reference 
made  by  some  revered  teacher,  who  glanced  at  it  only  to 
dismiss  it.  Finally,  distinguished  and  deservedly  respected 
scholars  deduced  from  the  epigraphic  results  of  modern 
research  conclusive  proof  of  the  accepted  theory,  and  de- 
clared that  the  opposite  view  was  now  finally  ejected  from 
educated  minds. 

These  facts  and  the  analogy  just  quoted,  show  how 
carefully  and  deeply  laid  the  foundation  must  be  on  which 
the  South-Galatian  Theory  is  to  rest.  It  is  not  enough  to 
state  in  a  brief  summary  the  general  bearing  of  the  facts, 
geographical,  political,  historical,  legal,  which  disprove  the 
current  North-Galatian  view.  That  has  been  done,  and 
the  North-Galatian  champions  meet  some  one  statement 
with  a  flat  denial,  and  treat  the  rest  with  silent  contempt : 
then,  dislodged  from  their  first  defence,  they  deny  some 
other  statement,  and  again  necessitate  a  laborious  demon- 
stration. 

It  is  therefore  best  to  attempt  to  picture  the  state  of 
Central  Asia  Minor,  at  the  time  when  Paul  and  Barnabas 
crossed  the  great  belt  of  the  Taurus  mountains,  and  to  show 
how  the  racial,  political,  geographical  and  religious  facts 
of  previous  history  had  contributed  to  produce  it.  Some 
of  the  historical  facts  mentioned  in  the  following  sections 
may  seem  at  first  sight  remote  from  the  Epistle ;  but  all 
have  a  real  bearing  on  the  argument.  Our  aim  is  to  make 
the  student  judge  for  himself  on  the  "  Galatian  Question  ". 

Instead  of  describing  the  character  of  the  Galatians — a 
method  which  always  is  liable  to  seem  too  subjective,  over- 
qoloured  to  sqit  the  argument — we  attempt  to  exhibit  the 


Section  i :    Preliminary. 


Galatians  in  action  and  in  history,  so  that  the  reader  can 
judge  of  their  character  for  himself. 

The  account  of  the  Galatian  wars  and  raids  (which  occupy 
most  part  of  the  existing  treatises  on  Galatia)  has  been  cut 
down  as  much  as  possible,  but  may  even  yet  be  considered 
too  long.  It  was  however  necessary  to  bring  out  the  fact, 
which  has  not  been  noticed  previously,  that  the  mixed 
Galatic  State  was  much  stronger  than  the  unmixed  Gaulish 
armies  ;  and  that  Galatia  increased  in  influence  over  the 
surrounding  countries,  and  reached  its  highest  importance 
as  a  power  in  Asia  Minor  during  the  Roman  period. 
Commonly,  the  history  of  the  Gauls  in  Asia  Minor  is 
painted  as  a  process  of  steady  decay  from  initial  power. 
Really,  the  Gaulish  element  ruled  an  immensely  wider  tract 
of  country  in  the  first  century  B.C.  than  it  had  ever  done 
before.  In  the  third  century  the  Gauls  were  fighting  for 
existence :  in  the  first  century  Gauls  ruled  Galatia  proper 
with  parts  of  Lycaonia,  Paphlagonia,  Pontus,  and  Armenia. 

The  "  Galatian  Question "  should  not  be  taken  in  too 
narrow  a  sense.  It  is  not  merely  a  question  of  Pauline 
interpretation  and  chronology.  Under  it  is  concealed  the 
great  subject  of  the  Christianisation  of  the  entire  inner  Asia 
Minor,  and  the  relation  of  the  new  religion  to  the  older 
religion,  society  and  education  of  those  many  regions  and 
countries,  Phrygia,  Upper  Lydia,  Upper  Caria,  Lycaonia 
and  Isauria,  Cappadocia,  North  Galatia,  Pontus.  He  that 
desires  to  understand  the  "  Galatian  Question  "  thoroughly 
will  not  be  content  with  dipping  into  books  on  the  history 
and  antiquities  of  Asia  Minor,  in  order  to  pick  out,  with 
least  trouble  and  in  the  shortest  time,  illustrations  of  the 
Epistle  and  arguments  to  support  a  foregone  conclusion  as 
to  its  meaning  and  scope.     He  will  first  acquire  as  good  a 


lO  Historical  Introduction. 

conception  as  possible  of  life,  religion  and  society  in  inner 
Asia  Minor  before  Paul  entered  the  country ;  and  he  will 
then  proceed  to  study  the  history  of  the  country  under 
the  new  influence.  The  subject  is  very  obscure,  and  the 
authorities  deplorably  scanty.  At  present  we  must  be 
content  with  tentative  and  inadequate  results.  But  we 
can  at  least  make  a  foundation,  on  which  exploration  and 
discovery  will  build,  and  we  can  lay  down  principles  by 
which  both  present  study  and  future  exploration  may  be 
guided. 

In  this  preliminary  study  of  pre-Pauline  society  and  life 
in  inner  Asia  Minor,  the  settlement  of  the  Gauls  in  the 
country  is  a  critical  epoch.  As  Monsieur  Theodore  Rein^ch 
says,  the  Gauls  were  un  element  destine  pendant  trots  siecles 
a  j'ouer  un  role  preponderant  dans  I'histoire  de  la  peninsule} 
To  study  even  South  Galatia  one  must  study  the  relations 
of  that  warlike  and  proud  Gaulish  people,  "  the  noblest  of 
barbarians,"  as  Plutarch  calls  them,  to  the  oriental  peoples 
around  them.  From  every  point  of  view  the  student  of 
central  Asia  Minor  must  make  North  Galatia  his  starting 
point. 

Note. — Dr.  Hort  on  the  Galatian  Question.  In 
Dr.  Hort's  posthumously  published  works  (taken  from  his 
university  lectures),  there  are  some  indications  pointing  to 
a  development  in  his  views  on  this  question.  In  his 
Lectures  on  i  Peter,  delivered  in  1882  and  the  following 
years,  he  takes  one  view:  in  those  on  Ephesians,  1891, 
he  expresses  a  different  opinion. 

In  the  former  he  points  out  that  St.  Peter  included  as 
Churches  of  Galatia  "  the  Churches  founded  by  St.  Paul  in 

^  ^oh  d(  Bithynie,  p.  8, 


Section  i :    Preliminary.  1 1 

Galatia  proper,  in  Lycaonia  and  in  Phrygia " ;  but  he  de- 
clines to  admit  that  St.  Paul  reckoned  the  latter  as  Churches 
of  Galatia,  on  the  sole  ground  that  Lightfoot  has  proved 
the  contrary.^ 

But  in  the  later  series  of  lectures  he  says  that,  in  the 
journey  described  in  Acts  XVIII  23,  St.  Paul  "visited 
.  .  .  Antioch,  where  he  stayed  some  time,  and  then  followed 
his  old  course  through  southern  Asia  Minor,  and  this  time 
was  allowed  to  follow  it  right  on  to  its  natural  goal, 
Ephesus  ".  That  sentence  contrasts  Paul's  uninterrupted 
route  through  Cilicia,  Derbe,  Lystra,  etc.,  to  Ephesus  in 
XVIII  23  with  his  previous  attempt,  XVI  1-5,  to  reach  the 
same  goal,  which  was  interrupted  in  the  middle.^  No  one 
could  speak  thus  who  held  the  North-Galatian  Theory,  for 
that  theory  inexorably  implies  that,  in  Acts  XVIII  23, 
Paul  did  not  traverse  southern  Asia  Minor,  but  took  a 
new  route  from  Cilicia  northwards  to  Tavium,  Ancyra, 
and  Pessinus. 

Hort  had  evidently  become  a  "  South-Galatian  "  between 
1882  and  1 89 1,  already  seeing  the  bearing  of  recent  dis- 
coveries in  Asia  Minor.  Death  prevented  him,  as  it  had 
prevented  Lightfoot,  from  being  the  pioneer  of  the  South- 
Galatian  Theory  in  England. 

1  See  pp.  17,  158,  etc.     The  views  on  the  Provinces  were  probably 
left  unrevised  after  1882,  see  Expositor,  Jan.,  1899,  p.  46. 
^  See  the  preceding  part  of  the  paragraph. 


SECTION  2. 

NORTH  GALATIA:  LAND  AND  PEOPLES. 

The  peninsula  of  Asia  Minor,  stretching  out  like  a  bridge 

from  Asia  to  Europe,  consists  of  a  great  central  plateau, 

from   2000  to  4000  feet  above  sea  level,  with  a  fringe  of 

low-lying  coast  around  it.     A  rim  of  mountains,  called  on 

the   south   side   Taurus,   separates   the  plateau  from    the 

coast-lands. 

The  country  that  was  called  Galatia  included  a  broad 

zone  in  the  northern  part  of  the  central  plateau.     It  was 

an  irregular  oblong,  which  may  be  roughly  estimated  as 

about    200    miles   long  from    east    to   west,    and    60    to 

80  miles   broad  from   north  to  south.      If  we   leave  out 

of  notice   the   extreme  northern   parts   which    border   on 

Paphlagonia  (as  these  are  historically  quite  unimportant 

and  practically  almost  unknown  to  modern  travellers),  the 

country  as  a  whole  is  of  uniform  character.     It  consists  of 

a  vast  series  of  bare,  bleak  up-lands  and  sloping  hill-sides. 

It  is  almost  devoid  of  trees,  except,  perhaps,  in  some  places 

on  the  north  frontiers ;  and  the  want  of  shade  makes  the 

heat  of  summer  more  trying,  while  the  climate  in  winter 

is  severe.     The  hills  often  reach  a  considerable  altitude, 

but   have   never   the  character   of  mountains.     They  are 

commonly  clad  with  a  slight  growth  of  grass  to  the  summit 

on  ^t  least  one  side.     The  scenery  is  uninteresting.     There 

(12) 


Section  2 :  North  Galatia  :  Land  and  Peoples.    1 3 

are  hardly  any  striking  features  ;  and  one  part  is  singularly 
like  another.  The  cities  are  far  from  one  another,  separ- 
ated by  long  stretches  of  the  same  fatiguing  country, 
dusty  and  hot  and  arid  in  summer,  covered  with  snow 
in  winter. 

In  the  description  which  is  given  on  p.  35  of  the  geo- 
graphical character  of  the  plateau  as  a  whole,  almost  the 
only  trait  that  is  not  true  of  Galatia  is  the  "  certain  charm  ". 
Galatia  is  the  least  interesting,  the  most  devoid  of  charm 
of  all  the  Asia  Minor  lands,  the  only  one  that  the  writer 
found  wearisome.  The  great  plains  in  the  centre  of  the 
plateau  are  far  more  interesting,  because  being  more 
absolutely  level,  they  permit  a  wide  view;  and  the  eye 
sweeps  over  a  vast  extent  of  country  to  the  distant  lofty 
mountains,  Taurus,  Hassan-Dagh,  etc.,  which  rim  the 
plateau  or  rise  like  steep  volcanic  islets  from  its  bosom. 
But  Galatia  is  just  undulating  enough  to  make  the  view 
almost  everywhere  contracted  and  confined  :  rarely,  if  ever, 
does  the  traveller  get  the  impression  of  width,  of  greatness, 
of  long  lines,  or  of  the  contrast  between  level  plain  and 
sharp  mountain  peak,  needed  to  give  a  standard  by  which 
one  can  realise  the  immensity  of  the  eye's  range. 

To  show  the  impression  that  North  Galatia  makes  on 
a  competent  observer,  one  may  quote  a  description  of  the 
central  and  western  parts  from  Major  Law's  Report  on  the 
Railways  of  Asiatic  Turkey  (Blue  Book  :  Turkey,  No.  4, 
May,  1896):  "The  aspect  of  the  country  is  exceedingly 
monotonous — a  series  of  larger  or  smaller  plains,  surrounded 
by  bare,  desolate-looking  hills,  with  streams  or  small  rivers 
flowing  in  the  centre,  but  little  cultivation  and  few  villages. 
The  average  high  elevation  is  maintained,  and  the  climate 
is  trying  both  in  winter  and  in  summer ;  there  is  a  terrible 


14  Historical  Introduction. 

absence  of  trees,  and  the  soil,  which  is  fairly  productive 
under  the  influence  of  seasonable  rains,  is  too  frequently 
burnt  up  by  the  prolonged  droughts  which  in  unfavourable 
years  are  the  cause  of  distressing  famines.  There  is  ex- 
tensive pasturage,  but  the  country  is  exposed  and  the  grass 
poor,  and  the  cattle  look  generally  in  poor  condition  ; 
sheep,  goats  and  camels  are,  however,  reared  with  success 
in  large  numbers,  and  the  Angora  mohair  and  wool  have 
long  been  famous.  Where  there  is  water  and  cultivation, 
cereals  grow  well,  and  there  is  a  considerable  production  of 
cotton,  besides  tobacco,  opium  and  hemp.  The  town  of 
Angora  {Ancyra)  itself  is  exceptionally  favourably  situated 
in  a  sheltered,  fertile  plain." 

Owing  to  difficulty  of  transport  (which  the  recently 
opened  railway  from  the  Bosphorus  to  Dorylaion,  i.e., 
Eski-Sheher,  and  Angora  will  in  time  obviate),  the  only 
products  of  Galatia  which  play  any  important  part  in 
modern  commerce  are  wool  and  mohair  (the  product  of 
the  fleece  of  the  beautiful  Angora  goat).  In  ancient  times 
wool  and  slaves  formed  the  only  important  Galatian  articles 
of  trade,^  so  far  as  our  authorities  go ;  but  much  more 
wheat  and  other  cereals  were  grown  then  than  now. 

A  country  of  this  character  can  never  have  nourished  a 
dense  population.  In  ancient  times  the  aspect  of  most  of 
the  land  away  from  the  few  great  cities  was  much  the  same 
as  it  is  at  the  present  day — bleak  stretches  of  pastoral 
country,  few  villages,  sparse  population,  little  evidence  of 
civilisation.  There  would,  however,  be  much  larger  flocks 
of  sheep  in  ancient  than  in  modern  times.  But  in  the 
occasional  districts  where  arable  land  abounds,  the  scene 
would  be  very  different  then  and  now :  the  soil  would  be 
^  Also  perhaps  mohair,  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  273. 


Section  2 :  North  Galatia  :  Land  and  Peoples.    1 5 

thoroughly  cultivated,  houses  and  villages  numerous,  the 
activity  and  education  of  man  apparent  everywhere.  Such 
districts,  however,  are  not  many,  and  are  found  chiefly  beside 
the  cities  which  were  fostered  by  them. 

The  description  given  of  one  of  these  fertile  spots,  given 
by  Mr.  J.  G.  C.  Anderson  in  the  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies, 
1899,  p.  91,  may  be  quoted  here  :  "  The  little  village  at  the 
foot  of  the  mound  is  pleasantly  situated  near  the  head  of 
a  plain  which  runs  down  to  the  railway  and  contains  some 
fairly  fertile  arable  land — a  rare  thing  in  this  neighbour- 
hood. The  country  through  which  the  road  passes  between 
the  Sangarios  and  Angora  is,  as  Hamilton  says,  '  perfectly 
uncultivated  ;  no  traces  of  vegetation  were  visible  except 
in  the  dried-up  stems  of  a  few  thorny  plants  and  flowers, 
which  cover  the  ground  instead  of  grass '.  The  description 
may  be  extended  to  the  whole  Haimane-country :  '  there 
are  no  gardens  here,  it  is  all  desert,'  as  a  Turk  of  Balik- 
koyundji  wearily  said  to  us." 

Bithynia  and  Paphlagonia  bordered  on  Galatia  to  the 
north,  Pontus  to  the  east,  Cappadocia  and  Lycaonia  to  the 
south,  Phrygia  in  the  narrower  and  later  sense  to  the  west. 
The  exact  bounds  are  best  studied  on  the  map. 

The  country  afterwards  called  Galatia  was  in  primitive 
time  divided  ethnographically  and  politically  into  two 
parts,  eastern  and  western :  the  division  was  made  by  the 
river  Halys,  which  in  this  part  of  its  course  runs  in  a 
northerly  direction  towards  the  Black  Sea.  Galatia  east 
of  the  Halys  seems  to  have  been  originally  reckoned  to 
Cappadocia,  though  part  of  it  was  probably  sometimes 
described  as  included  in  Paphlagonia ;  but  the  bounds  of 
those  countries  were  so  indeterminate,  and  the  ancient 
writers  themselves  were  so  ignorant  of  the  geography  of 


1 6  Historical  Introduction. 

those  lands,  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  say  anything 
positive  and  certain  on  the  subject. 

The  enigmatic  race  called  White-Syrians  (AevKoa-upoi) 
certainly  inhabited  part  at  least  of  Eastern  Galatia.  But 
it  is  useless  to  speculate  whether  the  population  of  Eastern 
Galatia,  at  the  time  when  the  Galatae  first  entered  the 
country,  was  mainly  Cappadocian,  or  White-Syrian,  or  of 
any  other  race. 

Eastern  Galatia  lies  mostly  in  the  basin  of  the  Halys 
(Kizil-Irmak,  the  "Red  River").  The  Halys  itself  has 
very  few  and  quite  insignificant  tributaries.  In  Eastern 
Galatia  the  Delije-Irmak  (whose  ancient  name  is  unknown) 
is  the  only  tributary  of  any  consequence  ;  and  most  of  the 
country  lies  in  its  basin  ;  but  the  river,  though  it  looks 
large  on  the  map,  carries  very  little  water  except  in  flood, 
when  it  becomes  a  broad  and  raging  torrent,  exactly  as  its 
name  indicates,  the  "  Mad  River  ". 

The  eastern  frontier-lands  of  Galatia  lay  in  the  valley  of 
the  Iris  (Yeshil-Irmak,  the  "  Green  River").  Tavium,  the 
Galatian  and  Roman  capital  of  the  district,  and  Pteria,  the 
pre-Galatian  capital,  once  the  imperial  city  of  Asia  Minor, 
were  situated  on  affluents  of  the  Iris. 

The  Halys  at  the  crossing  of  the  road  between  the 
capitals  Tavium  and  Ancyra  is  2350  feet  above  sea  level. 
The  altitude  of  Eastern  Galatia  averages  between  2300 
and  3000  feet. 

Galatia  west  of  the  Halys,  which  was  much  larger  than 
the  eastern  country,  was  the  most  important  and  the  most 
typical  part  of  the  country ;  most  of  our  scanty  information 
relates  to  it ;  and  in  general,  when  any  statement  is  made 
about  North  Galatia,  the  writer  has  the  western  part  of  it 
in  his  mind.     This  western  region  was  originally  part  of 


Section  2 :  North  Galatia :  Land  and  Peoples.    1 7 

the  vast  land  called  Phrygia  ;  and,  clearly,  the  population 
of  the  country  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourth  century  were 
known  to  the  Greeks  as  Phrygians  {^pvye<i). 

This  Phrygian  population  of  Western  Galatia  was  not 
a  homogeneous,  but  a  mixed  race.  On  its  character  see 
Section  3. 

Almost  the  whole  of  Western  Galatia  is  included  in  the 
basin  of  the  Sangarios,  the  great  river  of  Phrygia,  still  called 
Sakari'a  (implying  an  ancient  form  Sagaris,  of  which  San- 
garios is  a  Grecised  variety).  The  Halys,  as  was  stated 
above,  drains  a  very  narrow  basin,  and  about  twelve  miles 
west  of  that  river,  on  the  direct  road  from  Tavium  to  An- 
cyra,  one  finds  oneself  on  the  watershed  of  the  Sangarios, 
4000  feet  above  sea  level.  Thus  the  Sangarios,  though  it 
has  a  very  much  shorter  course  than  the  Halys,  drains  a  far 
greater  area  than  that  river, 

Ancyra,  still  called  Angora  (Enguri  in  Turkish),  the 
capital  of  Western  Galatia,  is  situated  on  a  tributary  of 
the  Sangarios  in  a  picturesque  and  very  strong  position, 
commanding  a  fertile  district,  about  3100  feet  above  sea 
level.  The  rest  of  the  country  varies  in  altitude  from  the 
banks  of  the  Sangarios,  1600-2200  feet,  to  parts  of  the 
Hafmane  (the  hilly  country  south  and  south-west  from 
Angora),  3600  feet :  the  hills  near  Ancyra  are  still  higher. 

In  this  country,  with  its  already  existing  population, 
were  settled  large  numbers  of  Gaulish  immigrants  about 
B.C.  232.  The  settlement  was  not  brought  about  simply 
by  Gaulish  conquest.  It  was  caused  by  agreement  of  the 
Greek  kings,  who  made  an  arrangement  by  which  this 
country  was  recognised  as  the  property  of  the  Gauls,  on 
the  condition  that  they  confined  themselves  to  it. 

The    changes    that    were    produced    thereby,    and    the 


1 8  Historical  Introduction. 

character  of  the  resulting  people,  must  be  studied  in  more 
detail.  The  method  usual  among  New  Testament  scholars, 
treating  Galatia  as  if  it  were  simply  a  country  peopled  by 
the  Gaulish  tribes,  is  an  erroneous  one  and  leads  to  much 
misapprehension. 

Note. — Descriptions  of  the  fertile  and  beautiful  plain  of 
Ancyra  are  quoted  by  some  writers  as  if  they  gave  a  true 
picture  of  Galatia  generally. 


SECTION  3. 


PRE-GALATIC  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  GALATIA. 


Pre-Phrygian  state  (probably  subject  to  Pteria) 
Independent  Phrygian  chiefs  and  kings 
Cimmerians  for  a  short  time 
Phrygian  kings  under  Lydian  suzerains 
Persian  Empire  .... 

Alexander  the  Great  and  his  successors 
The  Gauls  recognised  as  owners  of  Galatia 


before  tenth  century, 
tenth  century-674. 
after  675. 

•  -546. 

•  -333- 
333-232. 

about  232. 

c.  900,1  a 


At  an  early  date,  probably  not  far  from  B. 
European  race  from  Macedonia  or  Thrace,  which  crossed 
the  Hellespont,  had  overrun  great  part  of  Western  Asia 
Minor,  and  formed  several  distinct  states.  The  Trojan 
city  and  the  dynasty  of  Priam  belonged  to  this  people^ 
and  the  Trojan  legend,  as  it  has  come  down  to  us  in  the 
Iliad,  preserved  the  recollection  of  the  struggles  that  were 
waged  on  the  banks  of  the  Sangarios  between  the  invading 
Phryges  and  the  native  population  of  the  inner  lands..  The 
native  population  is  described  in  legend  as  the  Amazons 
(see  Section  5).  The  Phryges  gave  their  name  and  their 
language  to  the  land  which  they  conquered. 

^  Professor  A.  Korte,  a  distinguished  explorer  of  Phrygia,  would 
assign  B.C.  1500  or  2000  as  the  date  (Athen.  Mittheilungen  Inst.,  1897), 
but  his  reason  seems  inadequate.  He  has  proved,  not  that  thje 
conquering  Phryges  were  so  old,  but  that  they  adopted  some  arts 
from  the  older  race  whom  they  conquered. 

(19) 


20  Historical  Introduction. 

The  name  Phrygia  at  an  early  time  seems  to  have  included 
not  merely  Galatia  and  the  Sangarios  valley  generally  (ex- 
cept in  its  maritime  parts),  but  also  the  whole  of  the  lands 
lying  immediately  south  of  the  Hellespont  and  Propontis.^ 
The  characteristic  Phrygian  names  and  legends,  Askanios, 
Askania,  Otreus,  Otroia,  Mygdon,  etc.,  are  found  in  the 
extreme  south  and  the  extreme  north  of  that  vast  region  : 
e.g..  Lake  Askania  is  a  name  on  the  Pisidian  frontier  and 
in  Bithynia  a  few  miles  south-east  from  the  Propontis  (with 
a  town  Otroiai  beside  it,  like  Otroos  far  south  in  the 
Phrygian  Pentapolis).  And  not  Phrygia  alone,  even  in  the 
widest  sense,  was  overrun  by  that  European  race,  but  also 
part  or  the  whole  of  Lydia,  termed  Maionia,  and  Caria. 
Hence  arises  the  close  association  of  Maionia  and  Phrygia 
in  the  Iliad'^  hence  the  application  of  the  name  Phrygia  to 
the  country  and  the  heroes  connected  with  Mount  Sipylos 
near  Smyrna. 

In  all  those  lands,  doubtless,  the  conquering  race  be- 
came a  military  aristocracy,  of  varying  strength  in  the 
different  countries,  while  the  older  inhabitants  formed  a 
subject  population.  It  may  be  assumed  that  in  Phrygia 
the  conquering  race  was  more  numerous  in  proportion  to 
the  subject  race  than  in  Lydia  or  Caria,  and  imposed  its 
language  and  name  on  the  country,  while  in  Lydia  and  in 
Caria  there  were  probably  only  a  certain  number  of  immi- 
grants, who  became  chiefs  and  nobles  in  those  lands.  But 
probably,  even  in  Phrygia,  the  old  native  population  was 
more  numerous  than  the  conquerors  ;  and  in  course  of  time 
the  victorious  race  gradually  lost  its  individuality  and  origi- 
nal character,  arid  became  merged  in  the  native  race.     The 

^  Kai  ^pvyiT]  Kudinrepdf  Koi  'EXX^o-ttowos  aTTflpcov,  Iliad,  xxiv,  545. 
^ Iliad,  III  401,  X  431,  XVIII  291. 


Section  j  :  Pre-Gatatic  Histo7y  of  North  Galatia.    2  i 

joint  race,  however,  continued  to  bear  the  Phrygian  name 
and  probably  to  use  the  Phrygian  language. 

The  old  Phryges  were  a  sea-people  as  well  as  land-con- 
querors. A  people  who  cross  from  Macedonia  to  Phrygia 
must  have  learned  to  subdue  the  sea  to  their  will ;  and  Greek 
historical  tradition  mentions  a  Phrygian  Thalassocracy  last- 
ing twenty-five  years  from  B.C.  905.^  No  value  can  be  laid 
on  the  exact  years ;  but  probably  they  are  not  remote 
from  the  truth  as  to  the  period  when  the  Phrygian  power 
was  at  its   height. 

At  that  time  there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  the 
Phrygian  people  and  power  were  continuous  from  the 
Hellespont  and  the  coast  of  the  Troad  through  Mysia  (to 
use  a  name  of  later  origm),  and  up  to  the  banks  of  the 
Halys.  The  references  to  easy  intercourse  between  the 
Troad  and  inner  Phrygia  furnish  sufficient  proof  of  this : 
see  below,  p.  27. 

The  Phrygian  sea -power  very  soon  passed  into  other 
hands  ;  and  tradition  assigns  to  it  a  duration  of  only  twenty- 
five  years.  The  land-power  failed  also  to  maintain  its 
continuity.  Tribes  from  Thrace,  Mysoi,  Thynoi,  Bithynoi, 
crossing  the  Bosphorus,  forced  their  way  south-west,  south 
and  east ;  and  the  Mysians  formed  a  new  population  which 
split  the  Phrygian  people  into  two  fragments.  Hencefor- 
ward we  hear  of  two  Phrygian  countries — Hellespontine  or 
Little  Phrygia,  a  vague  undefined  region,  which  was  little 
more  than  a  name,  and  in  which  no  distinct  political  con- 
stitution is  discernible — and  Great  Phrygia,  Phrygia  Magna, 
a  vast  region  extending  from  the  borders  of  Lydia  and 
Caria  to  the  Halys  on  the  north-east,  and  to  the  Pisidian 
and  Lycaonian  frontiers  on  the  south  and  south-east. 
1  Diodorus,  VII  ii. 


22  Historical  Introduction, 

The  centre  of  power  in  Great  Phrygia  lay  to  the  north 
in  the  Sangarios  valley.  Scanty  tradition  is  confirmed  in 
this  respect  by  archaeological  evidence.  Partly  this  was  due 
to  the  greater  strength  of  the  conquering  people  in  the 
north  :  it  grew  more  scanty  and  more  scattered  as  it  pene- 
trated farther  from  its  origin.  Partly  also  the  predomin- 
ant importance  of  Northern  Phrygia  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  great  line  along  which  civilisation  and  political 
development  moved  led  across  the  Sangarios  valley.  That 
line  was  the  "  Royal  Road,"  which  connected  Pteria  the 
great  capital  among  the  White  Syrians  with  Sardis  in  Lydia 
— a  road  which  had  been  older  than  the  Phrygian  immi- 
gration and  belonged  to  a  pre-Phrygian  order  and  unity 
extending  from  one  to  the  other  of  those  two  great  cities. 
The  "  Royal  Road  "  ran  through  the  entire  length  of  Galatia 
(to  use  the  later  name),  and  over  the  North  Phrygian 
mountains,  crossed  from  the  headwaters  of  the  Tembrogios 
(a  tributary  of  the  Sangarios)  to  the  upper  reaches  of  the 
Maeander  basin  past  the  important  trading  centre,  Keramon 
Agora,  and  thence  passed  on  to  the  Hermos  valley  and 
Sardis. 

The  course  of  the  "  Royal  Road  "  was  marked  by  a  series 
of  great  Phrygian  cities,  Ancyra  of  Galatia,  Gordium  of 
Galatia,  Pessinus  of  Galatia,  and  the  Phrygian  metropolis, 
whose  very  name  is  now  unknown,^  but  whose  remains  are 
so  imposing.  Not  far  from  its  course  lay  other  cities, 
whose  names  attest  their  old  Phrygian  connection,  Gordou- 

^I  think,  however,  that  it  was  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Metropolis 
(as  will  be  shown  in  Citi&s  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  Part  III). 
Perhaps  the  name  may  be  only  a  Grecised  form  of  the  original 
Phrygian ;  but  more  probably  it  is  a  Greek  epithet  that  took  the 
place  of  the  native  name.     The  city  lies  over  the  "  Tomb  of  Midas  ". 


Section  j  ;  Pre-Galatic  History  of  North  Galatia.   23 

kome  in  Bithynia,  Midaion,  Kotyaion,  Aizanoi,  Kadoi,  in 
Phrygia,  Gordos  in  north-eastern  Lydia — associated  with 
heroes  of  Phrygian  mythological  history,  Gordios,  Midas, 
Kadys  or  Kotys.  But  the  only  Phrygian  town  of  the 
south  that  plays  any  important  part  in  early  history  and 
semi-historical  myth — Kelainai — owed  its  importance  to 
quite  different  conditions,  viz.,  to  trade  with  the  Greeks  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Maeander.^ 

The  powerful  kingdom  of  Great  Phrygia  (with  Galatia) 
fell  before  a  new  swarm  of  invaders  from  the  north.  These 
were  the  Kimmerioi,  a  people  from  the  Crimea  and  the 
South-Russian  coasts,  who  swept  in  devastating  hordes 
(like  the  Huns  and  Mongols  of  later  days)  over  the  fairer 
lands  of  the  south  :  their  conquest  of  Sardis  (all  but  the 
citadel),  Antandros,  and  Magnesia  on  the  Maeander  was 
remembered  in  Greek  history,  and  their  unsuccessful  attack 
on  Ephesos  (when  the  temple  of  Artemis  outside  the  city 
was  burned)  is  mentioned  by  the  contemporary  poets 
Callinus  and  Archilochus.^  With  approximate  exactitude, 
the  year  when  the  Cimmerians  captured  the  Phrygian 
metropolis,  and  the  Phrygian  king  Midas  killed  himself  in 
despair,  has  been  fixed  as  B.C.  674  by  Assyriologists  (whose 
sphere  of  study  begins  to  touch  central  and  western  Asia 
Minor  about  that  time,  and  thus  imparts  much  greater 
exactitude  to  it). 

The  Lydian  kings,  Ardys  652-615,  Sadyattes  615-610, 

^  See  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  Ch.  XI,  p.  412  fF. 

'^The  destruction  of  the  Ephesian  temple  and  of  Magnesia  is  often 
attributed  in  Greek  accounts  to  the  Amazons,  a  confusion  of  the 
primitive  native  population  with  the  later  invaders.  What  remained 
in  memory  was  that  a  people  of  barbarous,  non-Greek  type  had 
attacked  the  Ionian  cities. 


24  Historical  Introduction. 

and  Alyattes  610-561,^  resisted  and  finally  drove  back  the 
Cimmerian  hordes  ;  and  in  doing  so  extended  their  em- 
pire over  Great  Phrygia.  There  still  continued  to  rule  in 
Phrygia  Phrygian  kings,  for  Adrastus,  son  of  the  Phrygian 
king,  lived  as  a  refugee  (for  the  crime  of  homicide)  at  the 
court  of  Croesus  (561-546)  in  Sardis.  But  these  Phrygian 
kings  were  no  longer  independent  sovereigns,  but  were 
subject  to  some  kind  of  Lydian  suzerainty,  for  the  treaty 
concluded  in  585  between  Alyattes  and  the  Median  king 
Kyaxares  fixed  the  Halys  as  the  boundary  between  the 
Lydian  and  Median  Empires. 

About  546  Galatia  with  the  rest  of  Great  Phrygia  passed 
under  Persian  rule,  and  remained  so  until  Alexander  the 
Great  marched  to  Gordium  and  the  Galatic  Ancyra  in  B.C. 
333.  After  his  death  in  320  his  successors  struggled  and 
fought  with  one  another  with  varying  success  during  great 
part  of  a  century. 

The  fate  of  Galatia  during  this  disturbed  period  is  far 
from  certain.  When  the  pretensions  of  Antigonus  and  his 
son  Demetrius  to  succeed  to  the  realm  of  Alexander  were 
shattered  at  the  battle  of  Ipsos  in  301,  Lysimachus  was  re- 
cognised as  lord  of  Phrygia  and  the  north-western  countries, 
and  of  course  Phrygia  is  to  be  taken  as  including  Galatia. 
When  Lysimachus  fell  at  Korupedion  in  281,  the  victorious 
Seleucus  of  Syria,  who  had  previously  ruled  the  south- 
eastern regions,  became  master  of  all  Asia  Minor.  But 
Mithradates  of  Pontus  (B.C.  302-266)  allied  himself  with 

1 1  follow  the  dates  preferred  by  Gelzer  das  Zeitalter  des  Gyges  in 
Rhein.  Museum,  1875,  vol.  xxx,  not  as  certain,  but  as  best  attested. 
The  ancient  authorities  vary  considerably,  and  the  moderns  still 
more.  The  careful  and  accurate  historical  investigators  of  recent 
years  vary  as  regards  the  date  of  the  conquest  of  Lydia  by  Cyrus 
between  554  and  534. 


Section  J  :  Pre-Galatic  History  of  North  Galatia.   25 

some  Greek  cities  on  the  north  coast  against  him,  and  in 
281  Seleucus  was  murdered,  and  his  son  Antiochus  I  (281- 
262)  found  himself  surrounded  by  enemies.  The  opinion 
of  E.  Meyer  is  that  Galatia  passed  under  Pontic  power  at 
this  time  ;  but  he  makes  the  curious  mistake  of  distinguish- 
ing Galatia  from  Phrygia,  whereas,  of  course,  any  statement 
made  by  historians  about  Phrygia  at  that  time  must  be 
taken  as  true  of  Western  Galatia,  while  Eastern  Galatia 
belonged  either  to  the  Pontic  or  the  Cappadocian  kings.  It 
seems  more  probable  that  Antiochus  remained  nominal  king 
of  Great  Phrygia  (including  Galatia)  ;  but  in  his  difficult 
position  his  authority  would  hardly  have  any  real  power 
in  the  remote  north-eastern  parts  of  Phrygia  (the  future 
Galatia).  During  these  wars  the  Gauls  entered  Asia  Minor, 
B.C.  278-277  ;  and  a  new  period  begins.  They  found  in 
Galatia  the  people  whose  history  we  have  been  describing. 
This  non-Gaulish  people  formed  the  substructure  on  which 
the  Galatian  aristocracy  rested. 

We  must  therefore  try  to  gain  some  conception  of  the 
non-Gaulish  people  of  North  Galatia — the  mass,  it  must  be 
remembered,  of  the  population. 


SECTION  4. 

THE  PRE-GAULISH  INHABITANTS  OF  GALATIA. 

This  outline  enables  us  to  estimate  the  character  of  the 
conquering  Phryges.  In  comparison  with  the  native  peoples, 
they  were  a  race  of  warriors,  fiercer,  probably  better  armed, 
and  certainly  more  apt  in  the  use  of  weapons.  We  may 
suppose  that  they  brought  with  them  something  of  the 
spirit  of  the  later  Teutonic  and  Germanic  races,  to  whom 
they  were  probably  akin,  a  love  of  war  and  a  love  of 
freedom,  an  energy  and  pertinacity  and  self-assertiveness, 
which  always  seem  to  be  stronger  and  more  deep-rooted 
in  the  north  and  the  west  than  in  the  south  and  the  east. 
Hence  the  memory  that  the  old  Phryges  have  left  in  history 
is  that  of  warriors  and  rulers,  by  sea  and  by  land,  whereas 
the  character  of  the  later  Phrygians  in  history  is  that  of 
slaves,  effeminate  and  cowardly. 

As  the  name  "  Phrygians "  may  denote  equally  the 
European  conquering  tribe  and  the  mixed  race  formed 
from  the  amalgamation  of  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered, 
we  shall  use  the  term  "  Phryges  "  to  designate  the  immigrant 
tribe,  and  "  Phrygians "  for  the  united  people  resident  in 
Phrygia. 

The  impression  made  by  that  ancient  Phrygian  power 

was  strong  in  the  Greek  mind  in  the  age  when  the  Iltad 

was   composed.       Priam    tells  how  "  erewhile   fared   I   to 

(26) 


Section^:  Pre-Gaulish  Inhabitants  of  Galatia.      27 

Phrygia,  the  land  of  vines,  and  there  saw  I  that  the  men 
of  Phrygia,  they  of  the  fleet  steeds,  were  very  many,  even 
the  hosts  of  Otreus  and  gallant  Mygdon,  which  were  then 
encamped  along  the  banks  of  Sangarios.  For  I,  too,  being 
their  ally  was  numbered  among  them  on  the  day  that  the 
Amazons  came,  the  peers  of  men  "  {Iliad,  III  187  ;  Philost. 
Her.  20,  41).  In  return  for  this,  when  Priam  was  in 
danger,  "Phorkys  and  god-like  Askanios  led  the  Phry- 
gians from  far  Askania,  and  these  were  eager  to  fight  in 
the  battle-throng"  before  Troy's  walls  {Iliad,   II  862), 

Helen,  when  she  recognised  the  guileful  and  dangerous 
goddess  Aphrodite,  said  to  her :  "  Verily  thou  wilt  lead  me 
further  on  to  some  one  of  the  well-peopled  cities  of  Phrygia  ^ 
or  lovely  Maionia,  if  there  too  thou  hast  perchance  some  other 
darling  among  mortal  men  "  {Iliad,  III  401).  Helen  knew 
Aphrodite  as  the  goddess  whose  haunts  are  most  in  Phrygia  : 
this  remarkable  fact  is  explained  by  the  Homeric  Hymn  to 
Aphrodite,  and  especially  by  the  following  lines,  which  the 
goddess  speaks  to  Anchises,  her  favourite,  concealing  her 
real  nature  and  personality,  but  telling  of  her  own  land  : — 

"No  goddess  am  I,  .  .  .  but  a  mortal,  born  of  woman. 
My  father  is  Otreus,  of  famous  name,  belike  thou  hast  heard 
of  him,  who  is  king  over  all  Phrygia,  land  of  walled  cities  ".^ 

In  truth,  she  who  in  those  passages  was  expressed  in 
Greek  religious  forms  as  Aphrodite  was  in  her  essence  the 
Mother-Goddess  of  the  Phrygian  land  :  she  was  found  there 
by  the  immigrant  Phrygians,  and  reverenced  by  them  as  the 
great  divinity  of  the  country. 

We  cannot  trace  the  steps  in  this  alteration  of  the  Phrygian 
type  ;  but  analogy  shows  its  general  character.    The  Phryges 

^  TToXeif  (Z  vaiofjLfViu.  "^  ^pvyir]s  (lTet.)(^r]TOLO,  1.  112. 


28  Historical  Introduction. 

had  settled  among  a  peaceful  and  unenterprising  people. 
For  some  centuries  they  maintained  their  power  by  strong 
fortified  cities  or  citadels  on  the  summits  of  rocky  hills. 
Such  is  the  situation  of  Ancyra  and  of  Giaour-Kalessi  in 
Galatia,  of  the  city  by  the  Midas-Tomb,  and  of  the  little 
fort  beside  the  Lion-Tombs.^ 

When  their  power  was  destroyed  by  the  Kimmerioi, 
there  was  no  longer  the  stimulus  of  pride  to  maintain  their 
national  spirit ;  and  they  sank  to  that  placid  level  of  char- 
acter which  belonged  to  the  older  subject  population  and 
is  produced  by  the  genius  of  the  land  in  which  they  dwelt 
(see  Section  5,  p.  35) — the  character  of  "  an  agricultural  and 
cattle-breeding  population  of  rustics,  peaceful  and  good- 
humoured  ".^  Apart  from  the  Iliad,  that  is  the  character 
of  the  Phrygian  people  and  their  heroes  in  Greek  popular 
estimation  :  Gordios  is  a  farmer,  Midas  a  well-to-do  rough 
old  "  country  gentleman  ".  The  warrior  stock  has  melted  into 
the  older  stock,  and  disappeared  at  least  from  the  surface. 
We  must,  therefore,  beware  of  attributing  to  the  warrior 
Phryges  every  myth  and  every  legendary  or  religious  name 
that  we  find  in  local  legend :  many  of  those  personages, 
even  if  they  did  originate  in  the  conquering  race,  have 
softened  into  the  traits  of  the  conquered  rustic  people. 

It  is  generally  said  that  Ashkenaz,  which  seems  to  denote 
the  mass  of  Asia  Minor  (distinguished  from  the  western 
coasts,  Javan,  and  the  eastern  parts,  Togarma,  etc.)  in 
Genesis  X  4,  is  the  name  of  the  Phrygian  people ;  but  this 
name  certainly  belongs,  not  to  the  warrior  race,  but  to  the 

^  Ancyra  is  marked  as  a  Phrygian  city  by  its  name  (also  that  of  a 
city  in  the  north-west  corner  of  Phrygia),  and  by  tradition  associat- 
ing it  with  Midas  (see  Steph.  Byz.  s.v.). 

2  E.  Meyer,  Gesch.  des  Alterthums,  I,  p.  300. 


Section /f. :  Pre-Gaulish  Inhabitants  of  Galatia.      29 

older  agricultural  stock.  It  is  evidently  the  religious  and 
personal  name  ^ A(TKar]vo<i  or  A<TKavio<^,  in  Phrygia,  Lydia, 
and  the  Troad.  But  Genesis  X  4  can  hardly  be  younger 
than  the  tenth  century  B.C.,  and  is  therefore  probably  older 
than  the  conquest  of  Phrygia  by  the  Phryges.  The  family 
of  Anchises,  Aeneas,  and  Askanios,  is  professedly  of  a  dif- 
ferent stock  from  the  family  of  Tros  and  Priamos  in  the 
Trojan  legends  ;  and  we  take  it  to  represent  the  pre- Phry- 
gian element  in  the  population,  closely  connected  with  the 
worship  and  mythology  of  the  native  goddess. 

Thus  we  have  in  Phrygia  and  Galatia  a  warrior-race 
ruling  a  powerful  kingdom  for  over  two  centuries  ^  before 
6^6^  and  in  the  course  of  the  centuries  that  followed  melt- 
ing into  the  type  of  the  Anatolian  peasant  class,  which 
both  preceded  and  followed  it.  Before  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century  the  change  was  complete.  The  old  warrior  Phryges 
had  disappeared  under  Lydian  and  Persian  domination  ; 
and  the  Greeks  had  forgotten  about  them,  and  thought 
only  of  the  Phrygian  slaves,  with  whom  they  were  familiar. 
The  Phrygian  was  the  slave /^r  excellence;  by  nature  he 
possessed  only  the  unheroic  qualities. 

The  most  important  points  in  the  transformation  are 
these:  (i)  The  degeneration  of  the  conquerors  probably 
did  not  begin  until  they  had  ceased  to  be  a  dominant 
people.  (2)  The  process  of  amalgamation  between  the 
Phryges  and  the  older  population  seems  connected  with 
the  adoption  by  the  former  of  their  subjects'  religion. 
Cybele  was  indubitably  the  ancient  native  goddess :  the 
Phrygian  name  Askanios  was  modified  from  a  pre- 
Phrygian  divine  and  national  name. 

1  Prof.  A.  Korte  would  extend  the  period  to  900  or  1400  years,  see 
note,  p.  ig. 


30  Historical  Introduction. 

The  conquering  race  adopted  the  native  religion  ;  but 
in  adopting  it  they  contributed  elements  which  modified 
it.  Zeus  Benneus,  the  god  of  the  car,  and  Zeus  Bronton, 
the  thundering  god,  whose  worship  remained  in  later  time 
characteristic  of  the  cities  nearest  the  old  Phrygian  metro- 
polis, have  all  the  appearance  of  gods  of  the  immigrant 
Phrygians.  They  represent  the  male  element,  which  gave 
strength  to  the  conquerors.  In  the  religion  of  Cybele  the 
female  element  is  dominant :  p.  40  f 

Probably,  if  the  Phrygian  power  had  not  been  so  suddenly 
destroyed,  the  warrior  race  would  have  affected  the  amalga- 
mated people  rtiuch  more  than  was  actually  the  case.  But 
a  warrior  race  cannot  keep  its  fighting  instinct  in  defeat 
and  subjection  ;  and  thus  hardly  a  trace  of  the  earlier 
Phryges  can  be  discerned  in  the  later  record  of  the  race. 
Even  in  an  Asiatic  army  the  Phrygians  ranked,  not  among 
the  martial  races,  but  along  with  Ethiopians  and  Egyptians, 
in  B.C.  480.^  They  are  rarely  mentioned  as  an  element  in 
the  armies  of  later  Persian  or  Greek  kings,  and  only  among 
the  unimportant  light-armed  troops.  In  the  first  Mithri- 
datic  war,  Cassius  tried  to  make  a  Phrygian  army,  but 
abandoned  as  useless  the  attempt  to  train  "  men  unsuited 
for  war  "? 

To  bear  a  name  that  seemed  Phrygian  was  a  disgrace.^ 
"  To  slave  in  mid  Phrygia "  was  proverbial  for  the  lowest 
kind  of  life.^  Phrygians  and  Thracians  were  mentioned 
together  by  Greeks  as  the  least  honoured  of  mankind. 
They   were   accustomed    to   sell    their  own  children   into 

1  Herod.  IX  32,  cp.  VII  73,  VIII  113. 
^  ai/Spacrtv  aTroXe'/xotf ,  Appian  Mithr.  19. 
*  aia^^pov  yap  ovofia  ^pvyiaKOV  yvvaiK   e)(fiv. 
''Dio  Chrys.  XXXI  113,  c/>.  158,  X  4. 


Section  4:  Pre-Gaulisk  Inhabitants  of  Galatia.      31 

foreign  slavery,^  which  they  seemed  to  accept  as  their 
natural  lot.  They  wore  ear-rings  like  women,^  The  only 
Phrygian  who  attained  any  celebrity  in  Greek  story  was 
Aesop  the  slave.  They  are  described  as  slaves  by  nature, 
and  of  small  value  as  slaves  ;  but  this  last  point  probably 
refers  only  to  their  simple  character  and  slowness  of  wit, 
for  Socrates  said  that  the  Phrygians,  being  industrious, 
were  for  that  very  reason  suited  for  slavery :  ^  he  was,  of 
course,  judging  from  those  Phrygians  whom  he  saw  slaves 
in  Attica. 

But  in  these  qualities  we  may  see  rather  the  effect  of 
their  situation  than  an  index  of  their  real  character.  They 
were  far  from  the  sea  and  the  opportunities  of  travel  and 
intercourse  ;  they  had  few  products  except  slaves  in  their 
country  that  would  reward  and  stimulate  trade  ;  the  oppor- 
tunity of  getting  education  from  contact  with  other  races 
was  denied  them,  and  their  religious  system,  so  far  from 
favouring  education,  tended  to  keep  them  on  a  lower  social 
plane  than  their  Greek  neighbours ;  Greek  coast  colonies 
surrounded  them  on  three  sides,  and  the  keen,  enterprising, 
quick-witted,  highly-trained  colonists  regarded  with  ex- 
treme contempt  the  slow,  apathetic,  contented,  and  unutter- 
ably ignorant  Phrygians,  incapable  of  being  roused  or 
excited  by  any  cause  except  their  vulgar  and  degrading 
superstitious  rites. 

This  contrast  between  Greek  and  Phrygian,  and  the 
inevitable  victory  of  intellect  in  the  conflict  between  them, 

1  Philostr.  ^^0//.  VIII. 

'^Dio  Chrys.  XXXII  3  (so  Lydians  Xen.  Anah.  Ill  i,  31). 

'Aelian  Var.  Hist.  X  18  :  people  who  were  naturally  idle,  like  the 
Persians,  had  a  more  independent  spirit,  said  Socrates. 


32  Historical  Introduciion. 

gave   form   to   many   legends  —  Marsyas    conquered   and 
tortured  by  Apollo,  Lityerses  slain  by  Herakles.^ 

Almost  the  only  inventions  attributed  to  the  Phrygians 
were  in  music :  various  kinds  of  cymbals  and  similar  in- 
struments, the  flute,  the  trigonon,  perhaps  the  syrinx,  were 
considered  Phrygian  :  a  musical  mode,  said  to  be  of  melan- 
choly yet  emotional  and  exciting  character  was  called  the 
Phrygian  :  certain  tunes,  the  Lityerses  or  harvest  song, 
the  harmateion  or  carriage  song,^  etc.,  were  of  Phrygian 
origin.  There  was  also  a  Phrygian  dance.  These  are  all 
creations  and  accompaniments  of  the    Phrygian  religion. 

Associations  connected  with  the  Phrygian  worship,  pass- 
ing under  various  names  in  different  parts  of  Asia  Minor, 
such  as  the  Herdsmen,  the  Korybants,  the  Hymn- Singers, 
the  Satyroi,  survived  even  in  Roman  time  and  have  thus 
become  known  to  us.^  They  are  still  represented  by  the 
Mevlevi  or  dancing  dervishes  of  modern  Turkey,  with  their 
strange  yet  most  impressive  music  and  dance,  which  have 
probably  been  preserved  in  essential  characteristics  from 
the  worship  of  Cybele. 

Further,  the  art  of  embroidery  was  said  to  be  derived 
from  Phrygia  ;  and  the  Romans  gave  the  name  Phrygiones 
to  those  that  practised  the  art.  The  occupation  is  of  a 
feminine,  and  therefore  Phrygian,  type. 

In  literature,  only  the  fable,  the  least  cultured  of  literary 

1  Not  that  this  contrast  is  the  only  element  in  those  tales.  Each 
is  a  growth,  to  which  only  the  final  form  was  given  by  this  idea  of 
contest  between  Greek  and  Phrygian.  Another  form  of  the  Lityerses 
legend  is  that  he  was  slain  in  the  field  by  the  sickles  of  the  reapers, 
evidently  the  older  form  (see  p.  35). 

"  Many  conflicting  accounts  of  the  dpfidrfiov  fitXos  are  given,  as  war-, 
song,  etc. 

^Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  Part  II,  pp,  359,  630, 


Section  4'  Pre-Gaulish  Inhabitants  of  Galatia.      -y^"^ 

forms,  the  simple  expression  of  rustic  wisdom  and  wit  under 
the  guise  of  anecdotes  about  beasts  and  birds,  was  attri- 
buted to  Phrygia.  Even  this  came  probably  from  much 
further  east  ;  but  the  Greeks  heard  it  from  Phrygia  and 
thought  it  characteristic  of  that  country. 

In  this  picture  of  Phrygia,  as  Greeks  and  Romans  have 
handed  it  down,  the  living  characteristics  of  a  real  people 
are  clear.  Scanty  and  vague  as  is  the  picture,  it  is  at 
least  true  and  convincing  in  the  general  effect.  The  people 
stands  before  us  in  its  general  type.  Every  traveller  will 
recognise  in  it  the  modern,  so-called  "  Turkish,"  peasantry 
of  the  same  country  ;  and  he  sees  before  him  every  day  in 
the  country  the  same  old  conflict  between  the  quick-witted, 
subtle,  enterprising  Greek,  and  the  slow,  dull,  contented 
Turk.  The  modern  peasantry  has  reverted  under  the 
pressure  of  similar  external  conditions,  and  through  the 
influence  of  the  same  natural  surrounding,  to  the  primeval 
Phrygian  type.  Whatever  pride  of  religion  and  stock  was 
for  a  time  imparted  to  the  landsmen  by  the  Turkish  inter- 
mixture has  now  almost  disappeared,  since  the  Turks  ceased 
to  be  a  dominant  warrior  caste. 

What  we  may  call  the  "  Phrygian "  race,  then,  is  the 
fundamental  stock  into  which  by  degrees  all  immigrant 
races  tend  to  melt,  as  soon  as  circumstances  cease  to  support 
the  favoured  and  dominant  position  of  the  "outlander" 
aristocracy.  It  was  not  without  reason  that  the  Phrygians 
called  themselves  the  autochthonous  people,  the  original 
and  oldest  race  in  the  world.  But  that  old  stock  was  not 
the  European  immigrant  Phryges,  it  was  the  older  Ash- 
kenaz,  the  people  of  the  Amazones. 

In  North  Galatia  and  in  South  Galatia  we  meet  this 
ground-stock  in   two  totally  different  stages.      In   North 

3 


34  Historical  Introduction. 

Galatia  it  was  mastered  and  overlaid  and  ruled  by  an 
immigrant  aristocracy,  which  gave  tone  and  colour  and 
variety  and  power  of  development  to  the  inert  mass,  so 
that  the  latter,  with  its  plastic  nature,  took  on  it  for  the  time 
the  character  of  the  dominant  race  ;  and  the  Galatians  were 
severed  by  a  broad  and  deep  chasm  from  all  the  surrounding 
peoples. 

In  South  Galatia  the  same  stock  appears  as  trained  to 
a  certain  extent  in  the  cities  by  some  centuries  of  Greek 
municipal  institutions  and  law  and  a  smattering  of  Greek 
literature  and  education.  With  their  marked  receptivity 
and  plasticity,  the  Phrygians  took  on  themselves  with 
perfect  readiness  a  certain  element  of  Hellenism  :  "  without 
any  observable  resistance  and  with  great  facility  they 
adopted  Greek  myths,  fashions,  education  and  language  " } 
The  result  was  not  true  Greek — the  Phrygians  could  never 
become  Greeks  even  on  the  surface — but  it  was  at  least  a 
new  product,  which  showed  something  of  the  qualities  of 
both  Phrygian  and  Greek — Phrygian  sincerity  and  simplicity 
and  readiness  to  sink  their  own  individuality  in  what  they 
accepted  as  a  higher  training — Greek  desire  for  learning 
and  education. 

He  that  would  appreciate  rightly  the  "  Galatian  Question" 
must  begin  by  rightly  conceiving  the  historical  development 
of  North  and  South  Galatia ;  and  he  will  not  neglect  to 
acquire  some  conception  of  the  Phrygian  ground-stock,  as 
it  can  best  be  seen  either  in  actual  contact  with  the  modern 
peasantry  or  in  the  picture  of  them  drawn  by  sympathetic 
travellers.  Equally  necessary  is  it  to  appreciate  the  general 
type  of  Phrygian  religion,  on  which  see  next  Section. 

1  Haase  in  Ersch  und  Gruber  Realencyc.  s.v.  Phrygien,  p.  292. 


SECTION  5. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  ASIA  MINOR. 

The  tone  and  spirit  of  the  Anatolian  land  have  been 
described  in  the  following  words,  which  I  quote  from  the 
Historical  Geogr,  of  Asia  Min.,  p.  23  : — 

"  The  plateau  from  the  Anti-Taurus  westwards  consists 
chiefly  of  great,  gently  undulating  plains.  The  scenery,  as 
a  rule,  is  monotonous  and  subdued  ;  even  the  mountains  of 
Phrygia  seem  not  to  have  the  spirit  of  freedom  about  them. 
The  tone  everywhere  is  melancholy,  but  not  devoid  of  a 
certain  charm,  which,  after  a  time,  takes  an  even  stronger 
hold  of  the  mind  than  the  bright  and  varied  scenery  of  the 
Greek  world.  Strong  contrasts  of  climate  between  the  long 
severe  winter  and  the  short  but  hot  summer,  a  fertile  soil 
dependent  entirely  on  the  chances  of  an  uncertain  rainfall, 
impressed  on  the  mind  of  the  inhabitants  the  insignificance 
of  man  and  his  dependence  on  the  power  of  nature.  The 
tone  can  be  traced  through  the  legends  and  the  religion  of 
the  plateau.  The  legends  are  always  sad — Lityerses  slain 
by  the  sickles  of  the  reapers  in  the  field,  Marsyas  flayed  by 
the  god  Apollo,  Hylas  drowned  in  the  fountain — all  end  in 
death  during  the  prime  of  life  and  the  pride  of  art." 

The  influence  of  these  climatic  surroundings  on  the  mind 
of  the  people  that  dwell  among  them  may  be  illustrated 
from  an  author  who  has  observed  human  nature  with  the 

(35) 


36  Historical  Introduction. 

eye  at  once  of  a  physician  and  of  a  man  of  letters.  Narrat- 
ing his  experience  in  a  ship,  shut  in  the  ice  and  waiting  the 
single  chance  of  a  favourable  wind  to  open  a  passage  through 
the  impassable  barrier,  he  says :  "At  present  we  can  do 
nothing  but  .  .  .  wait  and  hope  for  the  best.  I  am 
rapidly  becoming  a  fatalist.  When  dealing  with  such 
uncertain  factors  as  wind  and  ice,  a  man  can  be  nothing 
else."i 

In  the  course  of  generations  the  influence  of  those  sur- 
roundings on  the  race  that  dwells  among  them  must  be 
deep  and  powerful.  Even  on  the  individual  who  lives 
and  works  among  them,  they  exercise  a  very  perceptible 
influence. 

In  the  preceding  section  it  has  been  shown  clearly  that 
the  one  strong  feature  in  the  Phrygian  character  lay  in  their 
religion.  Only  through  their  religion  and  the  accom- 
paniments which  it  created — music,  musical  instruments, 
religious  dances,  religious  societies — did  the  Phrygians 
impress  or  affect  other  races. 

In  205  the  Phrygian  religion  was  solemnly  welcomed 
into  the  Roman  State  from  its  old  seat  in  Galatia.  It  was 
brought  into  Attica  in  the  fourth  and  even  in  the  fifth 
century  B.C.,  and  continued  to  be  an  influence  there  in  spite 
of  the  ridicule  of  the  comic  poets,  the  scorn  of  philosophers, 
and  the  hatred  of  patriots. 

How  is  it  possible  to  recover  any  knowledge  of  the 
Phrygian  religion  at  that  early  time? 

We  can  do  so,  because  that  religion  was  so  permanent 
and  unchangeable  over  great  part  of  Asia  Minor.  When 
Paul  traversed  the  region  of  Phrygia,  the  religion  was  the 
same  as   that  which    prevailed  when   the   Gauls   entered 

^  Conan  Doyle,  Captain  of  the  Pole-star,  p.  23. 


Section  5  ;   The  Religion  of  Asia  Minor.       2>7 

Galatia.  A  cult  of  fundamentally  the  same  character — the 
native  Anatolian  religion — prevailed  over  the  whole  vast 
peninsula  before  Gauls,  or  Phryges,  or  Greeks  had  entered 
the  country.  Those  three  immigrant  peoples  produced 
considerable  effect  on  it  within  their  own  sphere  ;  but  the 
effect  was  more  in  the  way  of  limiting  its  power  than  of 
changing  its  character.  The  brief  allusions  made  to  its 
rites  by  Demosthenes,  Aristophanes,  and  many  other  Greeks 
who  satirised  it  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  show 
beyond  question  that  it  was  fundamentally  always  the  same. 

Hence,  with  proper  discretion,  we  can  use  the  memorials 
of  the  Roman  time  for  the  illustration  of  the  ancient  period. 
The  evidence  is  gathered  slowly,  point  by  point,  from  the 
monuments  scattered  over  the  country,  illustrated  by  the 
references  of  ancient  writers.  The  scattered  fragments  are 
all  collected  and  studied  individually  in  the  Cities  and 
Bishoprics  of  Phrygia.  Here  we  can  only  give  a  brief 
outline  of  the  facts  needed  (i)  for  the  study  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians,  and  (2)  for  the  comprehension  of  the 
"  Galatian  Question  ". 

The  accounts  which  have  been  transmitted  to  us  of  the 
Phrygian  religion  are  most  unfavourable.  Demosthenes  de- 
scribes with  the  keenest  contempt  and  sarcasm  the  Phrygian 
rites  of  which  his  great  rival  Aeschines,  as  he  says,  had 
been  a  celebrant.^  Certainly,  with  their  loud  cries  or  howls, 
and  their  grotesque  ceremony  of  purifying  the  nude  mystes 
with  potter's  clay  and  bran,  they  lent  themselves  readily 
and  deservedly  to  caricature  as  the  irrational  and  degrading 
ritual  of  unwashed  savages. 

The  Christian  writers,  and  especially  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria,^  give  a  terrible  picture  of  the  repulsive  and  immoral 

^  Di  Corona,  259-260.  "^  Protrept,  2,  p.  76. 


38  Historical  Introduction. 


drama  of  divine  life  that  was  acted  before  the  initiated  in 
the  Phrygian  Mysteries.  The  details  cannot  be  quoted. 
The  drama  that  was  acted  was  the  drama  of  humanity,  as 
it  was  apprehended  by  a  rude  and  primitive  people,  who 
regarded  the  mystery  of  life,  changing  from  parents  to 
children,  yet  remaining  unchanged  through  its  variations, 
as  the  great  fact  in  which  the  divine  nature  was  manifested. 
The  divine  parents  give  birth  to  the  divine  children  ;  and 
the  children  are  only  the  parents  in  another  form.  The 
daughter  is  the  mother  :  Leto  melts  into  Artemis,  and 
Artemis  into  Leto  :  they  are  only  two  slightly  differentiated 
forms  of  the  ultimate  divine  personality  in  its  feminine 
aspect :  the  continuity  of  life  is  unbroken :  the  child  re- 
places the  parent,  different  and  yet  the  same.^  The  feminine 
element  is  regarded  as  the  fundamental  one  :  the  male  god 
is  its  accompaniment  to  complete  the  cycle  of  life,  but  he 
is  almost  always  regarded  as  the  inferior,  the  servant,  or 
the  companion  of  the  Mother-Goddess.  From  their  union, 
which  is  represented  as  an  act  of  violence  and  deceit,  springs 
the  daughter,  Kora  or  Artemis  in  Greek  names.  Again 
from  another  act  of  violence  and  deceit  the  daughter  bears 
the  young  god  ;  and  he  is  simply  "  the  god  "  once  more, 
different  and  yet  the  same :  "  the  bull  is  the  father  of  the 
serpent,  and  the  serpent  of  the  bull ". 

The  punishment  for  these  horrors  is  the  mutilation  which 
the  god  perpetrates  on  himself,  and  which  the  celebrants 
often  in  religious  ecstasy  performed  upon  themselves. 

To  understand  the  relation  in  which  the  Epistle  stands 
to  this  religion,  we  must  observe  the  following  points  : — 

I.  The  Anatolian  religion  was  carried  out  in  an  elaborate 

^  Taken  nearly  verbatim  from  Citi&s  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  pt.  I, 
p.  91. 


Section  5  ;   The  Religion  of  Asia  Minor.       39 

and  minute  ritual.  Demosthenes'  satirical  description  of 
the  ceremony  of  purification  in  preparation  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Mysteries,^  would  be  enough  to  show  this.  Also 
there  was  a  separate  kind  of  purification  for  bloodshed,^  and 
there  were  regulations  about  sacred  animals,  distinction  of 
prohibited  and  permitted  food,  and  many  other  rules  imply- 
ing a  highly  artificial  system  of  life.^ 

II.  In  the  oldest  Anatolian  system,  the  divine  power 
exercised  through  the  priests  was  the  chief,  almost  the  only, 
ruling  influence  acting  permanently  upon  the  people. 

There  was  no  municipal  system,  nothing  corresponding 
to  the  Greek  city  with  its  thinking  citizens,  acting  on  their 
own  initiative,  and  interesting  themselves  directly  in  the 
fortunes  of  their  state.  The  evils  of  the  Greek  city  system, 
with  its  weakness  in  the  central  government  and  the  law, 
and  its  over-stimulation  of  the  half-educated  individual, 
are  apt  to  blind  us  at  the  present  time  to  the  immense  gain 
that  has  accrued  to  the  world  from  the  healthy  freedom 
that  inspired  the  Greek  citizen-states.^  We  can  imagine 
the  contempt  with  which  the  free,  thinking,  acting  Greek 
looked  down  on  the  enslaved,  mindless,  priest-guided 
Phrygian  or  Lycaonian. 

The  Anatolian  social  system  was  the  village  organisation. 
The  villagers  lived  side  by  side,  but  apparently  had  no 
administrative  rights.  They  looked  solely  to  the  religious 
centre  for  direction  and  for  orders.  The  prophets  and 
priests  interpreted  the  divine  will  to  the  people ;  and  "  the 

*  See  above,  p.  37.  "^  Herod.  I  35. 
^Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  134  ff. 

*  To  have  recognised  properly  this  glory  of  the  Greek  system  is 
Grote's  merit.  Some  more  recent  historians  abroad  have  neglected 
it  too  much. 


40  Historical  Introduction. 

command  of  the  God  (or  Goddess)  "  is  very  often  mentioned 
in  the  inscriptions  as  the  motive  for  the  villagers'  actions. 
Beyond  this  there  was  no  education,  and  no  state,  and 
probably  little  or  no  formal  law.^ 

There  was  probably  in  the  earliest  time  a  central  rule 
of  a  king;  but  this  was  exercised,  undoubtedly,  in  alliance 
with,  and  through  the  agency  of,  the  priests  at  the  great 
religious  centres. 

III.  The  Phrygian  religion  was  the  perpetuation  of  a 
primitive  social  condition,  which  the  people  in  their  ordinary 
life  had  long  risen  above.  There  was  in  that  religion  no 
marriage,  but  merely  secret  ^and  fraudulent  union  of  goddess 
and  god.  Hence  there  arose  this  dangerous  situation  that 
the  religion  of  the  country  was  on  a  lower  moral  standard 
than  the  ordinary  life  of  society.  In  their  religion  the 
people  learned  that  the  divine  life  was  the  unrestrained 
existence  of  the  wild  animals,  and  that  those  who  were 
serving  the  god,  possessed  by  the  divine  ecstasy,  or  acting 
under  the  divine  command,  were  bound  lo  act  contrary  to 
the  social  customs  recognised  in  ordinary  life.^ 

IV.  The  Anatolian  religion  was  a  glorification  of  the 
female  element  in  human  life.  As  has  appeared  in  the 
preceding  section,  the  national  character  is  receptive  and 
passive,  not  self-assertive  and  active.  The  character  of 
the  people  was  created  and  nourished  by  the  genius  of  the 
land  in  which  they  lived  ;  and  their  religion  represented 
to  them  the  female  element  as  the  nobler  development  of 
humanity,  while  the  male  is  secondary  and  on  a  lower  plane. 
The  Goddess-Mother  was  represented  in  the  mystic  ritual 

^  On  the  village  system  see  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  pp.  124, 
129;  Anderson  mjourn.  Hell.  St.,  1897,  p.  412. 
2  Compare  the  Church  in  the  Rom.  Emp.,  p.  397  f, 


Section  5  ;   The  Religion  of  Asia  Minor.      4 1 

as  the  prominent  figure  ;  the  God  comes  in  only  to  cause 
the  crises  in  her  Hfe,  and  of  his  life  we  hear  nothing  more  : 
the  life  of  the  Goddess  is  the  fulness  and  the  permanence 
of  nature. 

Among  the  peoples  of  the  west  it  was  very  different. 

The  most  complete  and  characteristic  development  of 
Hellenism — in  Athens  and  in  the  great  colonising  cities  of 
Ionia — was  accompanied  by  a  depreciation  and  subordina- 
tion of  the  female  element.  The  true  glory  of  woman  among 
them  was  to  be  as  much  as  possible  unheard  of  and  un- 
known. She  was,  if  honourable,  to  live  a  life  of  seclusion 
and  repression  :  she  could  be  educated  and  active  only 
through  dishonour  and  shame, 

A  race  which,  like  the  Phryges,  forced  its  way  into  Asia 
Minor  by  violence  and  war,  necessarily  trusted  to  the  quali- 
ties that  are  most  easily  developed  and  maintained  in  the 
male  sex.  A  conquering  race  in  a  foreign  land  usually 
brings  with  it  more  men  than  women  :  it  takes  wives  from 
the  daughters  of  the  conquered  land,  and  the  power  of 
the  male  in  the  family  is  inevitably  strengthened  in  such 
a  condition  of  the  nation. 

It  is  natural,  therefore,  to  find  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  old  Metropolis  of  the  Phryges  that  the  worship  of  Zeus 
the  Charioteer  and  Zeus  the  Thunderer  was  predominant 
in  the  Roman  period  (p.  30).  Beyond  this,  there  was  a  con- 
siderable change  produced  throughout  Phrygia  (i)  in  the 
outward  forms  of  religion,  and  (2)  in  social  institutions. 

(i)  There  were  several  personages  in  the  divine  family, 
whose  interaction  makes  the  drama  of  nature  and  life. 
One  of  these  personages  was  commonly  selected  in  each 
district  as  the  most  prominent  in  ordinary  life ;  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  qualities  of  the  people  and  the  influence  of  the 


42  Historical  Introduction. 

natural  surroundings,  characteristics  and  powers,  titles  and 
epithets,  were  bestowed  upon  this  divine  personage.  In 
the  mysteries  the  entire  divine  drama  of  Hfe  was  revealed  ; 
but  in  common  life  some  one  deity  was  usually  appealed 
to.  The  power  of  the  Phryges  tended  to  give  popular 
pre-eminence  to  the  God,  and  to  make  the  Goddess  less 
conspicuous  than  she  had  formerly  been. 

(2)  As  we  have  seen,  the  Anatolian  religion  stereotyped 
a  primitive  phase  in  the  social  system  of  the  country.  It 
had  taken  form  as  the  consecration  and  divine  authorisation 
of  that  primitive  system  ;  and  in  its  inner  character  it  pre- 
served the  original  features.  The  immigrant  Greeks  and 
Phryges  and  Gauls  powerfully  affected  the  whole  fabric  of 
society  and  law  ;  Greeks  and  Phryges  certainly  modified 
the  external  aspect  of  the  ritual  ;  they  made  the  inner 
mysteries  of  the  Anatolian  religion  more  secret,  more 
mysterious,  further  removed  from  the  light  of  day,  and  of 
course  prevented  it  from  being  the  universal  guide  and 
director  of  the  people  ;  they  raised  up  alongside  of  it  new 
motives  to  action  ;  the  Greeks,  especially,  circumscribed  its 
power  by  imparting  education,  philosophic  thought,  political 
interests,  and  municipal  ambition  to  part  of  the  people. 

V.  The  practical  performance  of  the  ritual  was  much 
connected  with  the  grave ;  but  the  grave  was  regarded  not 
as  concerned  with  death,  but  as  the  opening  of  life :  it  is 
expressly  stated  on  many  gravestones,  that  the  stone  is 
"  the  Door,"  and  this  was  made  clear  by  its  shape  or  by 
the  name  "  Door  "  engraved  upon  it.^     Every  grave  was  a 

^  On  the  Phrygian  customs  of  burial,  see  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia, 
pt.  I,  p.  99,  pt.  II,  p.  367,  no.  226,  p.  384,  and  J.  G.  C.  Anderson  in 
Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1899,  p.  127.  Noack  has  described  the 
"door-stones"  in  Mittheil.  Instit.  Athen.,  1894,  p.  326.  Illustration? 
also  in  Cities  and  Bish.,  pt.  II,  pp.  628,  661,  7QI, 


Section  5  ;   The  Religion  of  Asia  Minor.      43 

sanctuary,  and  the  dead  man  was  living  in  and  with  the 
divine  nature ;  the  making  of  the  grave  was  regarded  as 
the  discharge  of  a  vow  to  the  God ;  the  deceased  is  described 
on  some  stones  as  the  "  God  "  ;  common  forms  of  dedication 
are  "  to  the  Gods  beneath  the  earth  and  the  deceased,"  "  to 
the  deceased  and  to  the  God  a  vow"  ;  a  man  often  prepares 
his  own  tomb  as  "a  vow  to  the  God  (or  the  Goddess)," 
"  on  behalf  of  his  own  salvation  a  vow  to  the  God,"  or  even, 
"  by  (divine)  command  a  vow  to  the  God,  and  for  himself 
while  still  living  ". 

Further,  as  the  tomb  was  a  sanctuary,  so  every  sanctuary 
was  closely  connected  with  a  tomb.  The  ancient  Phrygian 
hero  went  back  to  the  mother  that  bore  him,  for  all  sprang 
from  the  Mother-Goddess  in  some  one  of  her  various  mani- 
festations, whether  she  is  the  divine  lake  Koloe  beside 
Sardis  and  the  Naiad  Nymph  of  the  Troad,^  or  appears  in 
human  form  to  her  favoured  Anchises.  She  is  the  Earth, 
the  universal  Mother,  called  Ma  by  all  men.  She  is  the 
life  of  Nature,  the  spirit  of  the  lakes  and  forests  and  rivers 
and  crops,  the  patroness  of  all  wild  animals,  of  everything 
that  is  free  and  strong  and  joyous.  Beside  her  sanctuary 
is  the  burial-place  of  her  sons.  Wherever  there  was  a 
shrine  marking  some  holy  place,  it  took  the  form  of  a  great 
mound  covering  a  grave,  or  a  rock-sculpture  forming  the 
front  of  a  grave,  or  rising  high  beside  a  grave.  The  same 
custom  lives  on  to  the  present  day  under  the  Mohammedan 
veneer  that  is  spread  over  it.  Wherever  the  divine  presence 
is  indicated  by  any  outward  sign,  such  as  hot  springs,  or 
even  simply  by  the  haunting  presence  of  ancient  life  and 
civilisation  amid  their  ruins,  there  is  a  shrine — always  in 
the  form  of  the  grave  of  some  hero,  who  now  bears   a 

''Iliad,  II  865,  XIV  444,  XX  384. 


44  Historical  Introduction. 

Mohammedan  name  such  as  Black-Akhmet,  or  Uryan 
Baba,  or  Omar  Baba,  or  so  on.  But  of  old  the  shrine  and 
the  hero  were  there  ;  only  they  bore  Phrygian,  instead  of 
Arabic  or  Turkish  names. 

Further,  if  the  custom  has  continued  to  the  present  day, 
must  it  not  have  lasted  unbroken  through  the  Christian 
period  ?  Paul  expostulated  with  the  Phrygians  of  Colossae 
about  their  devotion  to  the  "worship  of  angels,"  Col.  Ill 
12  ;  this  is  usually  represented  by  commentators  as  a 
Judaistic  or  Essene  idea,  but  may  it  not  be  the  Christian- 
ising form  given  to  the  worship  of  the  dead  heroes?  In 
later  time,  if  we  knew  more  about  the  worship  of  martyrs 
in  the  country,  we  should  probably  find  that  it  retained 
much  of  the  ancient  connection  with  the  grave.  That  is 
certainly  the  case  with  the  legend  of  Saint  Abercius ;  but 
few  Acta  of  the  Phrygian  Saints  are  preserved. 

How  easy  and  natural  it  was  for  any  one  brought  up  in 
the  Jewish  theology  to  identify  the  worship  of  the  deified 
dead  with  the  worship  of  angels  is  shown  by  the  following 
comment  on  the  remarkable  passage  of  Luke  XX  36,  they 
are  equal  to  angels,  for  they  are  sons  of  God,  since  they  are 
sons  of  the  resurrection.  "The  Jews  shared  in  the  common 
notion  that  the  dead  lived  in  the  underworld.  They  also 
believed  that  some  persons  could  escape  from  the  dead  and 
be  taken  directly  to  the  abode  of  God,  like  Elijah.  This 
was  interpreted  to  mean  that  they  became  angelic  members 
of  the  heavenly  host  (Ethiopic  Enoch  12,  3,  4).  Further,  in 
Gen.  VI  4,  angels  are  called  sons  of  God.  Luke  XX  36, 
means,  therefore,  that  when  the  resurrection  occurs,  all  who 
participate  in  it  are  heavenly  beings."  ^ ' 

1  Professor  Shailer  Matthews  in  a  notice  of  Professor  G.  E.  Barton 
on  the  "Spiritual  Development  of  Paul,"  Biblical  World,  April,  1899, 
p.  279. 


SECTION  6. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  GAULS  IN  GALATIA, 

In  the  year  B.C.  278-7  a  large  body  of  Gauls,  who  had 
been  ravaging  the  south-eastern  parts  of  Europe,  Greece, 
Macedonia  and  Thrace,  crossed  into  Asia  Minor  at  the 
invitation  of  Nicomedes,  king  of  Bithynia  (278-250).  They 
came  as  a  migrating  nation,  with  wives  and  children,  not 
as  a  mere  body  of  mercenary  soldiers  engaged  by  a  king 
to  help  in  his  wars.  This  national  character  gave  per- 
manence to  their  settlement,  and  made  their  migration  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  Asia  Minor.^  Bodies  of  Gauls  often 
in  the  following  century  engaged  as  mercenaries  for  a  time 
with  some  king ;  but  the  nation  remained  a  body  to  which 
the  mercenaries  returned.  Had  the  Gauls  consisted  only 
or  mainly  of  men,  they  would  probably  have  soon  been 
scattered  in  military  colonies  and  rapidly  have  been  merged 
in  the  native  population.  But  it  is  recorded  that  of  the 
20,000  who  came  under  Leonnorius  and  Lutarius  in  278-7, 
only  half  were  armed  men. 

But,  owing  to  this  national  character  of  the  immigration, 
the  Gauls  required  to  have  something  in  the  way  of  a  home 
and  a  centre.  However  hardy  and  courageous  their  women 
were,  families  cannot  live  a  life  of  raiding,  as  a  body  Oi 
mercenaries  could.     Naturally  they  would  gradually  drift 

^  See  above,  p.  10. 
(45) 


46  Historical  Introduction. 

to  the  point  of  least  resistance  ;  and  the  account  which  has 
just  been  given  of  the  Phrygian  people  explains  why  this 
point  was  found  in  Phrygia. 

Further,  it  was  found  in  north-eastern  Phrygia,  for  the 
south  and  west  were  strengthened  against  the  Gauls  by 
the  armies  of  the  Seleucid  kings  of  Syria  and  of  the  Per- 
gamenian  rulers.  The  fate  of  the  western  and  southern 
two-thirds  of  Asia  Minor  hung  on  the  rivalry  between  those 
two  dynasties.  The  Seleucid  dominion  over  Lycaonia, 
Phrygia,  Caria,  Lydia,  etc.,  was  contested  with  varying 
success  by  the  Pergamenian  kings,  until  at  last,  in  B.C. 
189,  the  Seleucid  armies  were  finally  expelled.  But  while 
they  held  to  their  Lydian  rule,  the  Seleucid  kings  had  to 
maintain  the  open  road  through  Lycaonia  and  southern 
Phrygia  against  the  Gauls.  Similarly  in  north-western 
Phrygia  the  Pergamenian  kings  were  always  striving  to 
establish  their  authority,  and  thus  kept  pushing  the  Gauls 
eastward. 

Thus,  after  fifty  years  of  promiscuous  raiding  over  great 
part  of  western  Asia  Minor,  during  which  the  Gauls,  "  alter- 
nately the  scourge  and  the  allies  of  each  Asiatic  prince 
in  succession,  as  passion  or  interest  dictated,  indulged  their 
predatory  instincts,"  ^  they  were  at  last  fixed  in  a  country 
which  was  recognised  as  their  permanent  possession. 

The  conditions,  as  thus  described,  explain  why  the 
final  settlement  of  the  Gauls  is  attributed  variously  by 
ancient  authorities.  Their  settlement  was  the  result  of  the 
long-continued  pressure  of  circumstances  ;  and  some  single 
event  in  the  fifty  years'  fighting  is  selected  by  one  historian 
as  the  most  critical  and  decisive,  while  others  mention  other 
events  as  more  important.     The  Gauls,  or  according  to  the 

^  Lightfoot,  Galutians,  p.  6. 


Section  6 :  Settlement  of  the  Gauls  in  Galatia.     47 

Greek  name,  Galatae,^  were  during  this  period  struggling 
for  life  and  a  home :  they  were  powerful  rather  through 
alliance  or  mercenary  service  with  some  of  the  warring 
kingdoms  in  Asia  Minor  than  through  their  own  strength. 
It  is  practically  certain  that  they  could  not  have  stood 
unaided  against  either  of  the  two  great  Hellenistic  powers, 
the  rising  Pergamenian  kingdom,  or  the  huge  Seleucid 
Empire  (which  stretched  from  Smyrna  on  the  Aegean  Sea 
to  some  vague  limit  far  in  the  heart  of  the  Asian  continent)  ; 
but  they  never  were  unaided.  The  principal  events  in  that 
fifty  years  of  raids  and  wars  may  be  described  as  follows. 

According  to  Apollonius,  the  Carian  historian,^  the 
Galatae  were  in  alliance  with  Mithridates  I,  King  of  Pontus 
(B.C.  302-266),  and  were  by  him  settled  round  Ancyra;  and 
E.  Meyer  infers  that  that  country  must  have  belonged  to 
the  Pontic  kings  at  the  time.  But  the  inference  is  wrong. 
The  facts  merely  prove  that  Antiochus's  authority  over 
north-eastern  Phrygia  was  weak  at  the  time.  Kings  prefer 
to  give  away  their  neighbour's  dominions  rather  than  their 
own  ;  and  so  Mithridates  did  to  the  Gauls. 

According  to  Livy^  the  Gauls  at  this  early  period  of 
their  ravages  were  in  three  divisions :  the  Trocmi  wasted 
the  lands  towards  the  Hellespont,  the  Tolistobogii  plun- 
dered Aeolis,  and  the  Tectosages  took  the  inner  country 
as  their  sphere  of  operations.     It  was,  therefore,  the  Tecto- 

*  Gain,  warriors :  Galatae,  nobles.  The  latter  name  probably  spread 
from  the  Greeks  of  Marseilles.  There  is  some  tendency  to  use  KeXrot 
or  Ke'Xrai  as  the  generic  name  of  all  cognate  tribes.  The  general 
name  for  the  speech  is  K^Xtwcij,  KeXTttrrt. 

2  Apollonius,  of  unknown  date,  is  often  said  to  belong  to  the  Cilician 
Aphrodisias ;  but  obviously  he  was  of  the  Carian  city.  Suidas  says 
only  'A<f>po8i(Tifvs. 

'XXXVIII  16,  13  (on  the  authority  doubtless  of  Polybius). 


48  Historical  Introduction. 

sages,  doubtless,  who  were  aided  by  Mithridates  to  settle 
about  Ancyra  ;  and  the  understanding  between  the  Gauls 
and  the  Pontic  kings  lasted  for  a  considerable  time.  The 
Seleucid  Antiochus  I  was  at  this  time  the  chief  enemy  of 
both.  He  is  said  to  have  gained  a  great  victory  over  the 
Gauls  ;  but  it  cannot  have  been  a  very  decisive  one ;  and 
in  281  he  was  slain  by  a  Gaul,  probably  in  a  battle  against 
either  Philetaerus  of  Pergamus  or  Ariobarzanes  of  Pontus 
(266-246). 

The  reign  of  Antiochus  II  was  very  disturbed  ;  and  he 
could  not  regain  the  lost  Seleucid  authority  over  the  region 
of  Ancyra,  seized  by  the  Tectosages.  His  son  Seleucus  II 
(247-226)  gave  his  youngest  sister  (perhaps  named  Laodike) 
in  marriage  to  Mithridates  II  (246-190);  and  as  dowry 
she  brought  with  her  Great  Phrygia  to  the  Pontic  king.^ 
This  fact  means  that  Seleucus  in  his  difficulties  was  trying 
to  secure  the  Pontic  alliance,  or  at  least  neutrality ;  and 
relinquished  his  claims  to  a  country,  in  the  remoter  parts 
of  which  his  predecessors  had  ceased  to  possess  any  author- 
ity. It  also  implies,  as  E.  Meyer  recognises  rightly,  that 
the  Gauls  round  Ancyra  were  regarded  as  more  or  less 
dependents,  and  not  exactly  as  equal  allies  of  Mithridates. 

At  this  period  so  dangerous  were  the  Gaulish  raids  over 
the  western  regions  of  Asia  Minor  (in  which  they  are  said 
to  have  ravaged  as  far  south  as  even  Themisonion^  and 
Apameia^),  that  Eumenes  I  of  Pergamos  (263-241)  bought 
safety  by  paying  tribute  to  the  Tolistoagii.*     His  successor 

1  Justin,  XXXVIII  6. 

^Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  264.  ^ Ibid.,  II,  p.  422. 

*Tolistoagii  is  the  name  in  the  early  inscriptions.  The  form 
Tolistobogii  is  also  found  in  early  authorities,  and  is  universal  in 
inscriptions  and  coins  of  the  Roman  period.  The  relation  between 
the  names  is  obscure. 


Section  6:  Settlement  of  the  Gauls  in  G alalia.     49 

Attalos  I  (241-197)  refused  to  continue  this  tribute  ;  and 
when  the  ToHstoagii  invaded  his  country,  he  defeated 
them  in  a  great  battle  at  the  sources  of  the  Caicos,  240, 
or  possibly  a  little  later. 

Soon  after  began  the  "  Brothers'  War  "  between  Seleucus 
and  Antiochus  Hierax,  the  prize  being  the  Seleucid  domi- 
nions in  Asia  Minor.  The  Gauls  were  hired  as  mercenaries 
by  Antiochus,  and  Mithridates  also  preferred  this  alliance 
to  that  of  his  father-in-law,  Seleucus,  who  was  defeated  in  a 
battle  beside  Ancyra  ^  about  235.  Then  followed  a  quarrel 
between  Hierax  and  his  Gaulish  mercenaries  ;  and  Hierax 
escaped  by  flight.  Thereafter  the  Gauls  appear  as  equal 
allies  of  Hierax,  who  became  lord  of  Seleucid  Asia  Minor; 
and  war  broke  out  with  Attalos  I.  In  this  war  Attalos 
gained  four  great  victories.  The  first,  or  second,  was  fought 
at  the  sanctuary  of  Aphrodite  close  to  Pergamos  (implying 
a  raid  by  the  allies  up  to  the  city)  against  the  ToHstoagii 
and  Tectosages  and  Hierax.  In  the  other  three  battles 
(in  Hellespontine  Phrygia,^  at  Koloe,  and  on  the  Harpasos 
in  Caria)  only  Antiochus  is  mentioned  ;  hence  probably  the 
Gauls  were  decisively  defeated  at  the  Aphrodision,  and  the 
limits  of  their  country  were  definitely  drawn  about  232,  and 
a  peace  concluded  with  them,  so  that  they  took  no  further 
part  in  the  war,  whose  issue  was  that  Attalos  I  became  lord 
of  all  Asia  up  to  Taurus. 

At  this  point,  the  Gaulish  tribes  were  compelled  to  con- 
centrate themselves  in  the  country  which  henceforth  bore 

1  So  Polyaenus ;  Eusebius  says  in  Cappadocia.  Cappadocia  here 
means,  doubtless,  the  territory  of  the  Pontic  king  (the  name  Pontus 
for  the  kingdom  had  hardly  yet  come  into  use),  and  therefore  may 
include  Ancyra.  The  Gauls  are  named  as  the  victors  by  Trogus  and 
Polyaenus ;  Mithridates  by  Eusebius. 

*This  may  possibly  have  been  the  first  battle. 

4 


50  Historical  Introduction. 

their  name.  The  Tectosages  remained  about  Ancyra  ;  the 
other  two  were  forced  into  the  same  neighbourhood.  There 
was  a  kind  of  bargain  struck.  On  the  one  hand  Attalos 
recognised  the  right  of  the  Gauls  to  that  land  ;  they  were 
no  longer  to  be  regarded  as  interlopers  and  outlaws ;  they 
now  had  their  acknowledged  home  as  one  of  the  peoples 
of  Asia  Minor.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Gauls  evidently 
agreed  to  observe  their  fixed  boundaries  on  the  side  towards 
Attalos,  and  to  refrain  from  raiding  his  territory. 

Clearly,  their  bounds  on  the  west  were  now  drawn  more 
narrowly.  A  region  west  from  Pessinus  bore  in  later  times 
the  name  of  the  Gaulish  tribe  Troknades  ;  and  yet  it  was 
part  of  Asia  {i.e.^  the  Pergamenian  kingdom),  and  not 
included  in  Galatia.  There  seems  no  other  occasion  except 
this  when  such  a  region  is  likely  to  have  been  taken  from 
the  Gauls  by  the  Pergamenian  kings.  At  the  same  time 
Pessinus  was  relieved  from  the  pressure  of  the  Gauls. 
Whether  they  had  ever  succeeded  in  capturing  that  great 
religious  centre,  or  had  only  mastered  the  open  country 
round  it  while  the  strong  and  populous  city  maintained 
itself  against  them,  certain  it  is  that  for  the  following  fifty 
years  Pessinus  was  in  close  alliance  with  Pergamos  and  at 
variance  with  the  Gauls. 

If  the  Gauls  were  thus  shut  in  on  the  west,  how  were 
they  to  find  room?  Probably  they  found  it  by  spreading 
in  other  directions.  They  did  not  spread  north,  because 
we  find  them  henceforth  allied  with  their  northern  neigh- 
bour Paphlagonia  ;  and  Bithynia  seems  not  to  have  lost 
any  territory  to  them,  as  Juliopolis  remained  Bithynian  for 
centuries.  South,  they  bordered  on  territory  disputed 
between  Attalos  and  the  Seleucids,  from  which  therefore 
they  were  debarred.     But  on  the  east  they  had  more  scope ; 


Section  6 :  Settlement  of  the  Gauls  in  Galatia.     5 1 

and  the  friends  of  Pergamos,  which  represented  the  Hellen- 
ising  and  civilising  power  in  Asia  Minor,  must  be  foes  of 
Pontus,  the  oriental  and  barbarian  power.  This  makes  it 
probable  that  now  they  crossed  the  Halys,  and  occupied 
part  of  the  Pontic  territory.  Some  years  afterwards,  too, 
we  find  them  in  the  later  stages  of  a  quarrel  with  Cappa- 
docia  about  territory  claimed  by  both,  evidently  east  of 
the  Halys.  For  a  time,  then,  the  face  of  the  new  nation, 
the  Galatae,  was  turned  towards  the  east. 

Here  originates  the  name  Galatia.  The  use  of  that  name 
implies  more  than  mere  occupancy  of  the  land  by  roving, 
unsettled  bands  of  Gauls.  It  implies  a  political  reality,  a 
form  of  government,  a  recognised  "land  of  the  Galatae". 
Henceforth,  we  speak  of  this  people  by  the  name  which 
they  bore  among  the  Greek-speaking  races — TaXaTai. 

But  what  was  the  sense  in  which  this  term,  Galatae,  was 
used  ?  Did  it  indicate  simply  the  Gaulish  conquerors  ?  or 
did  it  include  the  entire  population  of  the  country  Galatia? 
At  first,  of  course,  the  Galatae  were  only  the  Gaulish  con- 
querors, who  were  as  sharply  marked  off  from  the  Phrygian 
subject-people,  as  Normans  were  from  English  about  A.D. 
1066- 1 100.  But,  obviously,  not  a  thought  of  separation 
between  two  sections  of  the  population  remains  in  the  minds 
of  those  writers  who  in  late-Roman  or  Byzantine  times 
speak  of  the  Galatian  people.  After  the  lapse  of  several 
centuries,  the  Gauls  had  become  as  undistinguishable  from 
their  subjects  as  Normans  now  are  in  England :  a  {ev^  old 
families  might  trace  their  Gaulish  descent,^  but  it  was  not  a 
practical  factor  in  the  life  of  the  country. 

^  That  families  in  Galatia  boasted  of  their  ancient  lineage,  Gaulish 
or  otherwise,  is  proved  by  several  inscriptions  :  C.I.G.  no.  4030  and 
Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  pt.  II,  p.  649. 


52  Historical  Introduction. 

When  and  how  this  change  was  produced  will  be  shown 
in  Section  8. 

Note. — Principal  Modern  Authorities  (apart  from 
Commentators) : — 

Holder,  Alt-Celtischer  Sprachschatz  (A-M). 

Van  Gelder,  De  Gallis  in  Graecia  et  Asia  ante  an.  150  (1888). 

Staehelin,  Geschichte  der  Kleinasiatischen  Galater  (iSg'j). 

Korte  in  Mittheilungen  des  Instituts  A  then.  Abth.  (1897). 

Zwintcher,  de  Galatarum  Tetrarchis. 

Anderson  in  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  (iSgg). 

Crowfoot  in  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  (1899). 

Perrot,  Explor.  Archeol.  de  la  Galatie  (1862). 

Perrot,  de  Galatia  Provmcia  Romana  (1867). 

Perrot,  Memoires  d'A  rcheologie,  p.  229  fF. 

Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Koenigreichs  Pontes  (1879). 

Th.  Reinach,  Rois  de  Bithynie,  de  Pont,  de  Cappadoce  (1888  and  1887). 

Hennig,  Symbolae  ad  As.  Mm.  Reges  Sacerdotes  (1893). 

Wroth,  Catalogue  of  Brit.  Mus.  Coins,  Galatia,  etc.  (1899). 

Radet  in  Revue  des  Universites  du  Midi  (i8g6). 

Ramsay,  Histor.  Geography  of  Asia  Minor,  Ch.  H,  K. 

Pauly-Wissowa,  Real.  Encyclop.  s.vv.  Attalos,  Antiochos,  etc. 

The  General  Histories  of  the  period. 

See  also  p.  102. 


SECTION  7. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  GALATIA,  b.c.  232-64. 

During  this  period  only  isolated  glimpses  are  afforded  us 
into  the  fate  and  fortunes  of  Galatia,  as  the  Gaulish  tribes 
came  into  relations  with  the  western  peoples,  whose  history 
is  better  known. 

Before  describing  the  scattered  facts,  we  may  summarise 
the  general  result  as  follows.  The  Galatian  power  on  the 
whole  declined  ;  and  finally  the  skilful  and  vigorous  Perga- 
menian  policy,  by  gradually  introducing  Greek  civilisation 
into  the  country  and  forming  a  philo-Greek  party,  was  on 
the  point  of  destroying  the  Galatic  isolation,  and  bringing 
the  tribes  under  Pergamenian  and  Hellenistic  influence, 
when  Rome  interfered  to  preserve  the  Galatian  independ- 
ence. The  result  was  a  strong  reaction  against  Hellenism 
and  a  recrudescence  of  the  old  barbaric  and  Celtic  char- 
acter :  the  philo-Greek  party  in  Galatia  seems  to  have  been 
annihilated,  and  Galatian  isolation  and  dissimilarity  from 
the  surrounding  Graeco-Asiatic  peoples  was  maintained. 

The  amalgamation  of  the  immigrant  Celtic  and  the  old 
Phrygian  population  in  Galatia  seems  to  have  proceeded 
rapidly  after  189  B.C. ;  and  there  ensued  a  decided  growth 
in  Galatic  strength,  unity  and  vigour,  and  this  reinvigorated 
nation  began  to  press  outwards  on  its  weaker  neighbours 
and  to  enlarge  its  bounds,  no  longer  by  mere  raid,  but  by 

(53) 


54  Historical  Introduction. 

occupation.  Finally  it  was  able  with  Roman  help  to  main- 
tain itself  against  the  united  Asiatic  and  Greek  reaction 
under  Mithridates,  and  to  emerge  from  that  terrible  struggle 
stronger  and  greater  than  before. 

As  we  saw,  the  Gauls  played  no  part  in  the  later  wars  of 
Attalos.  The  cis-Tauran  dominion  of  the  Pergamenian 
king  lasted  only  for  a  few  years.  Seleucus  Keraunos 
(226-223)  started  personally  for  a  campaign  in  Asia  Minor, 
when  he  was  poisoned  by  a  Gaul  named  Apatourios,  doubt- 
less a  leader  of  mercenaries  in  his  service.^  Under  his 
successor  Antiochus  the  Great,  Achaios  recovered  the 
Seleucid  dominion  in  Lydia,  Phrygia,  etc.  Thereafter  he 
rebelled  against  his  cousin,  King  Antiochus,  once  more 
endangering  the  Seleucid  realm  in  Asia  Minor.  Attalos 
now  began  to  recover  his  power  ;  and,  in  order  to  strengthen 
himself,  brought  over  from  Europe  a  Gallic  tribe,  the 
Aigosages,  with  whose  aid  he  made  a  raid  in  B.C.  218  into 
Aeolis  and  then  eastward  across  Lydia  into  north  Phrygia 
as  far  as  Apia.  Thereafter  he  settled  the  Gauls  in  the 
Hellespontine  Phrygia,  where,  however,  they  were  destroyed 
by  Prusias,  King  of  Bithynia,  in  217-16. 

The  northern  part  of  Phrygia  seems  henceforth  to  have 
remained  subject  to  Attalos,  probably  by  arrangement 
with  Antiochus  the  Great.  The  latter  had  Attalos  as  his 
ally,  while  besieging  Achaios  in  Sardis,  which  he  captured 
in  214.  During  the  following  years  Attalos  became  pos- 
sessed also  of  Phrygia  Epiktetos,  the  region  of  Kotiaion 

^  Galatic  mercenaries  regularly  served  in  the  Seleucid  armies  and 
were  courted  by  rebellious  satraps :  compare  Polybius,  V  53,  3  and  8 ; 
79,  11;  XXI  20;  Livy,  XXXVII  8  and  38;  Appian  Syr.  6  and  32. 
Galatic  mercenaries  in  the  Egyptian  armies,  Polybius,  V  65,  10  ; 
82,5. 


Section  y:    The  History  of  Galatia.         55 

and  Dorylaion,  which  previously  belonged  to  the  kings  of 
Bithynia.  Perhaps  this  acquisition  was  the  result  of  the 
war  with  Prusias  in  207-6.  That  Attalos's  dominion 
reached  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Pessinus,  and  that  he 
cultivated  friendly  relations  with  the  great  sanctuary  there, 
is  proved  by  the  following  events. 

In  B.C.  205  the  Sibylline  Books  were  found  to  promise 
victory  in  the  Carthaginian  War  to  the  Romans,  if  they 
brought  the  Great  Idaean  Mother  from  Pessinus  to  Rome. 
This  pointed  to  an  active  Eastern  policy  in  Rome ;  it  im- 
plied that  the  state  must  come  into  closer  relations  with  the 
eastern  Mediterranean  peoples  ;  and  in  view  of  Hannibal's 
settled  plan  of  uniting  those  peoples  in  an  anti-Roman 
league,  the  new  Roman  policy  was  prudent. 

Five  ambassadors  with  five  quinqueremes  were  sent  to 
Delphi,  and  the  Oracle  referred  them  to  Attalos.  Attalos 
seized  the  opportunity  of  linking  his  fortunes  to  the  great 
republic  of  the  west,  welcomed  the  ambassadors,  and  in 
person  conducted  them  to  Pessinus.  Through  his  influ- 
ence the  sacred  stone,  the  symbol  of  the  goddess,  was 
delivered  to  the  Romans,  and  brought  in  state  to  Rome. 
Along  with  the  sacred  stone,  the  whole  Phrygian  ritual, 
with  its  eunuch  priests,  was  established  in  Rome. 

In  this  transaction  it  is  obvious  that  the  Gauls  had  no 
part.  The  power  of  Attalos  extended  close  up  to  Pessinus, 
and  he  was  in  direct  relations  with  the  governing  priestly 
hierarchy.  The  Gauls  did  not  need  to  be  consulted,  and 
therefore  cannot  have  had  any  footing  in  Pessinus.  As  we 
shall  see,  it  was  not  till  between  189  and  164  that  they 
succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  in  that  city. 

In  the  period  232-200  the  Gauls  of  Galatia  were  not 
active  in  western  Asia  Minor.     Whatever  was  the  reason, 


56  Historical  Introduction. 

the  agreement  concluded  with  Attalos  when  they  were 
settled  in  Galatia,  was  strictly  observed  by  them  for  a  time. 
Apparently  they  turned  their  attention  northwards,  and 
their  unsuccessful  siege  of  Herakleia  on  the  Euxine  may 
be  referred  to  this  period.^ 

The  alliance  with  Morzeos,  King  of  Paphlagonia,  which 
we  find  existing  in  189,  apparently  as  an  old-standing  con- 
nection, would  be  useful  in  this  siege. 

Shortly  after  200  they  were  turning  their  attention  west- 
wards once  more.  In  196,  the  year  after  Attalos  died, 
they  were  threatening  Lampsakos  on  the  Hellespont,  and 
that  city  procured  from  Massalia  in  Gaul  a  letter  of  re- 
commendation to  the  Tolistoagii.^  All  the  chiefs  of  the 
Gauls  had  renounced  their  friendship  with  Pergamos 
before  189,  with  the  single  exception  of  Eposognatus,^  one 
of  the  Tolistoagii.  This  formal  renunciation  of  friend- 
ship implies  that  the  Galatian  tribes  had  begun  to  observe 
international  courtesies,  and  wage  regular  war  in  place  of 
raids. 

Probably  the  Galatian  tribes  were  on  bad  terms  with 
Pontus  during  this  time.  In  189  the  Trocmi  must  have 
dreaded  attack  from  the  east,  for  they  sent  their  wives  and 
children  for  safe  keeping  among  the  Tektosages. 

In  189  the  consul,  Cn.  Manlius  Vulso,  in  order  to  strike 
terror  once  for  all  into  the  nations  west  of  the  Halys,  led 
an  army  against  the  Gauls,  who  had  fought  for  Antiochus 
against  Rome  at  the  battle  of  Magnesia. 

1  Memnon  28,  the  only  authority,  says  that  the  siege  occurred 
"before  the  Romans  entered  Asia,"  i.e.,  before  igo. 

2  Lolling  and  Mommsen,  Mitth.  Instit.  Athen.,  VI,  p.  96  ff,  212; 
Mommsen,  Rom.  Gesch.,  Ed.  8,  I,  pp.  724,  742,  (transl.  II,  pp.  447,  469). 

a  Livy,  XXXVIII  18,  i. 


Section  j:    The  History  of  Galatia.  57 

The  Tolistobogii  with  their  families  and  the  warriors  of 
the  Trocmi  occupied  Mount  Olympus,  evidently  a  hill  of 
no  great  height,^  probably  part  of  the  low  range  on  the 
right  hand  as  one  goes  from  Pessinus  to  Ancyra.^  Manlius 
defeated  them  with  immense  slaughter,^  and  captured 
40,000  prisoners  to  be  sold  as  slaves.  Then  he  proceeded 
to  occupy  Ancyra,  and  thereafter  defeated  the  Tectosages, 
who  had  concentrated  on  Mount  Magaba  (probably 
south-east  from  Ancyra)  ;  the  slain  Gauls  are  estimated 
at  not  more  than  8000,  and  of  the  captives  no  estimate 
is  given .^ 

Content  with  these  severe  blows,  Manlius  finally  made 
peace,  stipulating  only  that  the  Gauls  should  no  longer 
make  those  armed  raids  in  western  Asia  Minor,  which 
had  been  the  terror  of  all  the  cities  for  about  eighty 
years.  ^ 

The  stipulation  is  significant.  It  shows  that  the  danger  of 
a  Gallic  raid  was  still  ever  present  to  the  peoples  of  western 
Asia  Minor :  the  victories  of  Pergamenian  and  Seleucid 
armies  over  the  Gauls  had  not  been  so  decisive  as  to  tame 
the  unruly  Galatian  barbarians.  According  to  Roman 
ideas,  the  consul  was  fully  justified,  now  that  Rome  had 
interfered  decidedly  in  Asian  affairs,  in  ensuring  peace  by 
making  the  Roman  power  felt  all  round  the  limits  which 
the  republic  for  the  present  set  to  itself,  viz.,  the  Taurus 
mountains  and  the  Halys  river.  That  he  carried  out  this 
policy  with  a  spirit  of  greed  and  rapine  is  true  ;  but  it  is 
a  mistake  to  regard  the  expedition  as  a  mere  plundering 

^  The  operations,  as  described  by  Livy,  prove  this. 

2  It  IS  the  watershed  between  the  Ancyra  stream  and  the  Ilidja-Su. 

*  Estimates  of  slain  vary  from  10,000  to  40,000. 

<•  Livy,  XXXVIII  27.  « Ihid.,  40. 


58  Historical  Introduction. 

raid.  The  blow  against  the  Gauls  was  inevitably  demanded 
by  Roman  policy.^ 

Taken  in  connection  with  the  Paphlagonian  alliance,  the 
Heracleian  siege,  and  the  threatening  of  Lampsakos,  the 
terms  concluded  by  Manlius  show  how  powerful  and 
menacing  was  this  Galatic  state  in  the  heart  of  the  Gra^co- 
Asiatic  world  as  late  as  189.  The  Roman  allies  were 
more  gladdened  by  the  defeat  of  the  Gauls  than  of  Antio- 
chus  himself,  such  was  their  hatred  of  those  terrible  bar- 
barians ^  and  their  never-ceasing  terror  of  a  possible  attack 
at  any  moment.  The  relief  which  was  felt  all  through 
Asia  carried  the  fame  of  the  Romans  even  to  Syria  and 
Palestine,  and  a  confused  recollection  of  the  results  of  the 
Galatian  war  was  part  of  the  foundations  of  their  reputa- 
tion in  the  eyes  of  Judas  Maccabaeus,  and  induced  him  to 
seek  alliance  with  them  against  his  Seleucid  foes  in  B.C.  161.^ 

In  this  war  we  observe  that  the  chiefs  of  the  Galatae 
were  divided.  One  of  the  tetrarchs,  Eposognatus,  sided 
with  Eumenes  and  the  Romans.  A  small  party  among 
the  Galatae  was  now  inclined  to  prefer  the  alliance  with 
the  west,  the  side  of  civilisation,  though  the  vast  majority 
rallied  to  the  standard  of  barbarian  independence.  In  the 
following  years  the  former  party  grew  stronger. 

But,  while  ready  to  strike  down  the  Galatic  pretensions 
to  terrorise  Asia,  the  Romans  were  not  disposed  to  en- 
courage Eumenes  too  much  ;  and  their  subsequent  policy 
shows  a  settled  intention  of  discouraging  his  schemes  and 

1  Such  is  Mommsen's  view,  as  against  the  superficial  opinion  that 
Manlius  was  a  mere  piratical  raider. 

^ Immanium  barbarorum,  says  Livy,  XXXVIII  37. 

3 1  Mace,  VIII  2  :  the  passage  illustrates  the  vague  and  inaccur- 
ate conceptions  of  the  Jews  as  to  the  Roman  exploits. 


Section  7 ;    The  History  of  Galatia.  59 

preventing  his  acquiring  a  decided  supremacy  in  Asia. 
The  aim  of  Rome  was  to  keep  the  various  interests  in 
Asia  balanced  uneasily  against  one  another,  and  draw  the 
hopes  of  all  towards  herself.  As  usual,  she  governed  by 
dividing  and  by  preventing  the  concentration  of  power  in 
any  hands  but  her  own  ;  and  the  immediate  necessity 
was  to  keep  Eumenes  weak  by  encouraging  the  Galatian 
tribes. 

Manlius  had  charged  the  Galatians  to  keep  peace  with 
Eumenes  ;  ^  but  very  soon  a  war  broke  out,  in  which  they, 
along  with  Pharnaces  of  Pontus  and  Prusias  of  Bithynia, 
fought  against  the  Pergamenian  king.^  Ortiagon,  a  chief 
of  the  Tolistobogii,^  aimed  at  supreme  power  among  the 
Gauls  ;*  but  in  181  several  chiefs  are  mentioned,  implying 
that  the  ordinary  tetrarchic  or  cantonal  system  ^  continued. 
As  Polybius  conversed  with  Ortiagon's  wife  at  Sardis, 
while  other  chiefs  are  mentioned  as  the  regular  allies  of 
Pharnaces,^  it  is  probable  that  two  factions  existed  after 
189  in  Galatia  :  one  headed  by  Ortiagon  favoured  a  Per- 
gamenian alliance  and  consolidation  of  the  country  after 
the  analogy  of  a  Greek  kingdom  ;  the  other  favoured  the 
Pontic  alliance,  and  the  old  Gaulish  tribal  system.  The 
latter  party  proved  stronger,  and  Ortiagon  had  to  retire 
with  his  family  into  Pergamenian  territory. 

But  it  soon  became  evident  to  the  Galatians  that  a 
Pontic  alliance  meant  a  Pontic  tyranny.  Pontic  armies 
domineered  in  Galatia.     In  these  circumstances  the  same 

1  Livy,  XXXVI 1 1  40.  2  Trogus,  XXXI I  prolog. 

^  He  fought  at  Mt.  Olympus,  where  no  Tectosages  were  engaged  ; 
and  his  wife  was  with  him,  while  the  women  of  the  Trocmi  had  been 
sent  to  Mt.  Magaba. 

*  Polyb.,  XXII  21.     "  See  section  8,  p.  72.     «  Polybius,  XXIV  8,  6. 


6o  Historical  Introduction. 

chiefs,  Carsignatus  and  Gaizatorix/  that  had  previously 
led  the  Pontic  faction,  now  joined  Eumenes  in  B.C.  i8i  ; 
and  the  Pergamenian  king  marched  through  Galatia  intp 
Cappadocia  to  join  his  ally  Ariarathes  ;  but,  when  they 
were  about  to  attack  Pharnaces  in  his  own  land,  the 
Roman  ambassadors  ordered  both  sides  to  cease  hostilities. 
At  last  in  179  peace  was  concluded,  one  condition  being 
that  Pharnaces  should  abandon  all  attempt  to  interfere  in 
Galatia,  and  that  his  agreements  with  Galatian  chiefs  should 
be  invalid. 

Thus  the  Pergamenian  faction  apparently  gained  the 
upper  hand  in  Galatia  for  a  tinie  after  B.C.  179;  and 
Galatian  auxiliaries  are  mentioned  in  the  Pergamenian 
armies  171  and  169.^  Among  them  Carsignatus,  the 
former  ally  of  Pharnaces,  is  mentioned,  showing  how  com- 
pletely the  friendship  of  Eumenes  was  adopted  in  Galatia, 
and  making  it  probable  that  Ortiagon's  policy  of  unifying 
Galatia  was  at  an  end.  Eumenes  had  learned,  with  his 
usual  tact,  that  a  Greek  system  of  monarchic  government 
could  not  be  forced  on  the  Gauls.  It  is,  however,  highly 
probable,  as  Van  Gelder  has  rightly  recognised,  that  at 
this  time  the  amelioration  of  Galatian  manners  and  the 
introduction  of  more  civilised  ways  into  the  country,  was 
gradually  and  cautiously  fostered  by  the  patient  skill  and 
administrative  ability  of  Eumenes. 

The  magnificent  temple  at  Pessinus,  whose  construction 
Strabo  assigns  to  the  Attalid  dynasty,  was  probably  built 
or  at  least  begun  during  this  period. 

But  Roman  jealousy  of  Eumenes's  success  stopped  the 
pacification  of  western  Asia,  which  Eumenes  was  carrying 

1  Gaizotorios  in  Polyb.,  XXV  4.  ^  Ljvy,  XLII  55,  XLIV  13. 


Section  7 ;    The  History  of  Galatia.         6 1 

out  so  skilfully.  True  and  loyal  as  the  king  had  been  to 
Rome,  he  was  accused  falsely  of  favouring  the  Macedon- 
ians, though  he  had  actively  assisted  Rome  against  them. 
In  167  the  Galatians,  instigated  by  Prusias,  invaded  his 
country,  under  a  chief  named  Advertas,  and  nearly  suc- 
ceeded in  destroying  his  monarchy,^  and  the  Romans 
would  not  permit  him  to  punish  the  nation.  In  the  follow- 
ing years  they  lent  ready  ear  to  Bithynian  and  Galatian 
ambassadors  complaining  of  Eumenes. 

In  spite  of  the  Roman  covert  opposition,  Eumenes 
again  proved  victor.  A  peace  was  concluded  in  165 
with  the  help  of  the  Romans,  guaranteeing  the  freedom 
of  Galatia,  but  binding  the  Gauls  to  abstain  from  raids 
like  those  of  167  and  166.  Thus  Eumenes's  Galatian 
ascendancy  was  ended,  and  the  reactionary  Galatian  party 
was  triumphant. 

This  war  had  evidently  been  carried  out  by  the  reaction- 
ary party  in  Galatia,  and  was  marked  by  a  recrudescence 
of  the  old  barbarous  custom.  The  handsomest  captives 
were  sacrificed  to  the  Gods  ;  the  rest  were  speared  ;  and  even 
those  whose  hospitality  the  Gauls  had  previously  enjoyed 
were  not  spared.^ 

About  164-160  there  was  a  long  dispute  between  the 
Galatians  and  Ariarathes  of  Cappadocia  as  to  certain 
border  country,  which  the  Trocmi  had  tried  vainly  to  seize.^ 
At  first  the  Roman  favour  inclined  to  the  Galatians,  but 
Ariarathes  bought  the  favour  of  all  ambassadors,  and 
finally  of  the  senate  ;  and  the  dispute  was  probably  decided 

1  Livy,  XLV  19. 

^Diodor,  excerpt,  de  Virt.  et  Vit.  31,  2,  p.  582,  referred  to  this  period 
by  Van  Gelder,  p.  265,  rightly, 
s  Polyb.,  XXXI  13. 


62  Historical  Introduction. 

in  his  favour  (which  Polybius  evidently  considered  to  be 
just). 

To  the  years  immediately  following  belongs  a  corre- 
spondence between  Eumenes  or  his  successor  Attalos  II 
(158-138)  and  the  high  priest  of  Pessinus.^  The  high 
priest  who  had  assumed  the  priestly  sacred  name  Attis, 
was  a  Gaul,2  j^yj-  ^ccx  adherent  of  the  Pergamenian  faction ; 
and  the  correspondence  shows  that  there  was  a  good  deal 
of  dissension  among  the  Gauls  and  intriguing  for  and  against 
the  Pergamenian  influence,  which  had  its  chief  centre  at 
the  great  hieron  of  the  Pessinuntine  Goddess.  Pessinus, 
then,  had  by  this  time  come  under  Galatian  power,  and  a 
Gaul  was  high  priest.  Now,  an  inscription  of  the  Roman 
period  shows  that  half  of  the  college  of  priests  who  minis- 
tered at  the  hieron  of  Pessinus  were  of  Gaulish  birth,  so 
that  the  priest  who  ranked  tenth  in  the  college  was  fifth 
among  the  Galatian  priests ;  and  this  seems  to  prove  that 
an  arrangement  must  have  been  made  dividing  the  priest- 
hoods between  the  old  priestly  families  and  the  Gaulish 
conquerors^  (doubtless  all  of  the  Tolistobogiaii  tribe,  to 
whom  Pessinus  belonged). 

The  acquisition  of  Pessinus  by  the  Tolistobogii  must  be 
assigned  to  the  period  between  189  and  164. 

In  these  long  wars  it  is  evident  that  the  Trocmi  occupied 
the  most  unfavourable,  and  the  Tectosages  the  most  favour- 
able situation.  The  Trocmi  were  close  to  Pontus  ;  the  Pon- 
tic kings  were  always  trying  to  assert  their  authority  over 

^Best  published  by  Domaszewski  in  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheil.  OesUr- 
reich,  1884,  p.  95  ff. 

'^His  brother  bore  the  Gaulish  name  Aiorix. 

*  Professor  A.  Korte  found  and  published  the  inscription  Mittheil. 
Inst.  Athen.,  1897,  pp.  16,  39;  and  accepts  the  above  interpretation, 
Philolog.  Wochenschrift,  1898,  p.  i  f. 


Section  /  :    The  History  of  Galatia.  63 

Galatia;  and  in  every  war  the  Trocmi  would  suffer  most. 
They  were  evidently  cramped  for  room,  for  they  had  made 
many  attempts  to  seize  parts  of  Cappadocia;^  but  ultimately 
failed,  at  least  in  part.  They  then  probably  turned  their 
efforts  in  another  direction.  They  could  not  go  north,  for 
the  allied  Paphlagonia  prevented  them.  Bithynia  was  too 
strong  on  the  north-west ;  Pergamos  pressed  them  on  the 
west  and  south-west. 

On  the  south  alone  was  Galatic  expansion  comparatively 
easy  during  this  period.  Here  lay  the  open,  defenceless 
country  of  Lycaonia.  Under  the  Seleucid  kings  Lycaonia 
was  shut  against  them,  for  it  was  the  gate  to  the  Seleucid 
Phrygian  and  Lydian  territory,  and  must  be  kept  open  and 
safe  at  all  costs.  But  when  the  Seleucid  power  was  driven 
out,  and  confined  to  the  country  south  and  east  of  Taurus, 
then  Lycaonia  was  the  most  distant  and  defenceless  part 
of  the  Pergamenian  territory.  Moreover,  as  Pisidian 
Antioch  was  made  a  free  state,  Lycaonia  was  nearly  cut 
off  from  the  Pergamenian  realm  ;  and  a  glance  at  the  map 
will  show  how  difficult  it  must  have  been  to  maintain  Per- 
gamenian power  in  Lycaonia  when  thus  separated.  What, 
then,  was  the  lot  of  Lycaonia  in  the  century  following  the 
constitution  of  the  Pergamenian  kingdom  in  189? 

The  authorities,  Polybius  and  Livy,  are  both  agreed  that 
Lycaonia  was  assigned  to  Eumenes  in  189.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  certain  that  Lycaonia  was  not  part  of  the  Perga- 
menian kingdom  in  133,  for  the  whole  kingdom  passed  to 
Rome  and  became  the  Roman  Province  Asia.     The  assured 

^  Incidentally,  we  note  that  this  implies  a  very  scattered  system 
of  habitation  among  the  Gauls.  For  their  numbers  their  territory 
was  not  really  narrow.  But  evidently  their  system  consisted  in  a 
parcelling  out  of  the  territory  in  lots  to  the  tribal  aristocracy. 


64  Historical  Introduction. 

fact  then  is  that,  if  Livy  and  Polybius  are  right,^  Lycaonia 
dropped  out  of  the  Pergamenian  realm  between  189  and  133. 

Now,  Ptolemy  mentions  a  country  called  the  "  Added 
Land,"^  which  was  at  some  period  tacked  on  to  Galatia. 
It  lay  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Tatta,  and  therefore  must 
have  originally  belonged  to  Lycaonia,  and  been  taken  and 
added  to  Galatia,  just  as  the  "  Acquired  Phrygia  "  ^  had  been 
taken  from  Bithynia  and  added  to  Phrygia  about  206. 

Further,  Pliny*  mentions  that  a  part  of  Lycaonia  was 
given  as  a  tetrarchy  to  Galatia — making  one  of  the  twelve 
tetrarchies  into  which  Galatia  was  divided. 

Evidently  these  facts  must  be  taken  together,  the  tetrarchy 
taken  from  Lycaonia  was  "  added "  to  Galatia ;  and  the 
time  when  this  occurred  was  when  Lycaonia  was  protected 
neither  by  the  Pergamenian  nor  by  the  Seleucid  kings, 
between  189  and  133.  We  may  go  further,  and  say  that 
the  time  was  probably  about  160,  when  the  Galatae  had 
failed  to  get  the  accession  of  territory  from  Cappadocia 
which  they  desired,  and  when  the  Roman  influence  protected 
the  Cappadocian  bounds  as  settled  by  the  Imperial  State; 
and  the  Galatae,  pressed  in  on  all  other  sides,  found  ex- 
pansion easiest  on  the  Lycaonian  frontier. 

It  is  not  a  real  objection  to  this  identification  that 
Ptolemy  excludes  Iconium  from  the  "  Added  Land,"  while 
Pliny  says  that  Iconium  was  the  capital  of  the  Lycaonian 

1  Here  one  need  not  estimate  the  value  of  the  conjecture  advanced 
in  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  pt.  I,  p.  285.  It  must  either  remain 
uncertain,  or  be  absolutely  set  aside,  unless  new  evidence  should  be 
found.  Livy,  XXXVIII  39,  had  before  him  Polybius,  XXII  27,  as 
the  MSS.  have  it  now. 

2  n.poaftXrjfj.fiei'r],  V  4,  10.  The  word  has  been  corrupted  in  many 
MSS. 

*  'EmKTTiTos.  *  Nat.  Hist.,  V  95. 


Section  y :    The  History  of  Galatia.  65 

tetrarchy  added  to  Galatia.  As  we  shall  see,  p.  105  ff, 
the  double  division  of  Lycaonia  into  the  Tetrarchy  or 
Added  Land  and  Lycaonia  Proper"'  gave  place  later  to  a 
triple  division  into  the  Added  Land,  the  Lycaonian  Diocese, 
and  Cappadocian  Lycaonia ;  and  that  is  the  system  which 
Ptolemy  tries  to  describe,  though  as  usual  he  makes  mistakes. 

Thus  about  B.C.  160  Galatia  was  greatly  extended, 
having  taken  in  Pessinus  and  probably  Lycaonia  as  far  as 
Iconium  and  Lystra.^  This  expansion  must  have  taken 
place  with  the  consent  of  the  sovereign  Rome,  and  is  doubt- 
less connected  with  their  anti-Pergamenian  bias  at  this 
time.  The  Galatians  were  encouraged  in  order  to  counter- 
balance the  strength  of  Pergamos. 

Trogus  mentions  ^  that  Lycaonia  and  Cilicia  were  given  in 
129  to  the  sons  of  Ariarathes,  King  of  Cappadocia,  in  reward 
for  the  help  their  father  had  given  to  Rome  in  the  Asian 
revolt.  It  is  fairly  certain  that  the  expression  Lycaonia 
et  Cilicia^  used  by  Trogus,  describes  the  same  stretch  of 
country  in  Lycaonia  and  Cilicia  which  is  mentioned  by 
Strabo,  pp.  535,  537,  as  having  been  given  to  the  kings  of 
Cappadocia  by  the  Romans  :  *  this  territory  stretched  from 
Derbe  on  the  west  by  Kybistra  to  Kastabala  on  the  skirts 
of  Mount  Amanus,  and  was  called  the  Eleventh  Strategia 
of  Cappadocia,  so  that  it  includes  all  that  part  of  Lycaonia 
which  was  not  in  the  Galatic  tetrarchy. 

The  testimony  of  Trogus,  when  rightly  understood,  thus 

^  Called  Lycaonia  ipsa  by  Pliny,  V  95  (using  an  old  authority). 

2 There  were  fourteen  cities  in  the  tetrarchy,  and  it  seems  impos- 
sible to  make  up  that  number  without  going  as  far  south  as  Lystra, 
which  moreover  was  closely  connected  with  Iconium,  being  only 
eighteen  miles  from  it. 

sjustin,  XXXVII  i,  2. 

*  So  rightly  Bergmann,  de  Prov.  Asia,  pp.  16,  17. 

5 


66  Historical  Introduction. 

corroborates  our  conclusion  as  to  the  tetrarchy.  Lycaonia 
now  consisted  of  two  parts :  one  was  attached  to  Galatia 
as  an  "added  tetrarchy,"  and  one  to  Cappadocia  as  an 
"  eleventh  Strategia  ". 

Thus,  for  some  years  the  history  of  Galatia  shows  the 
Gaul^  fluctuating  between  the  Pergamenian  and  the  Pontic 
alliance.  The  former  represents  the  tendency  to  civilisa- 
tion and  order ;  and  had  it  triumphed,  Galatia  might  have 
adopted  Greek  manners  and  law.  But  the  party  which 
favoured  the  Gaulish  manners  and  the  old  barbarian  methods 
gained  the  upper  hand,  thanks  chiefly  to  the  moral  support 
that  Rome,  jealous  of  Pergamenian  power,  gave  them. 

In  the  following  century,  when  the  Pontic  kings  roused 
the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  against  Rome,  the  Galatian  tribes, 
as  the  faithful  allies  of  the  Italian  state,  were  thrown  into 
still  more  violent  antagonism  to  the  Greek  element  in  Asia. 

Thus  the  Galatians  were  kept  free  from  Greek  civilisation. 
Against  it  they  allied  themselves  first  with  the  Asiatic 
barbarism  of  Pontus  and  thereafter  with  Roman  order. 
The  progress  of  the  tribes  was  from  Gaulish  barbarism  to 
Roman  manners  ;  and  only  when  the  Roman  spirit  found 
itself  too  weak  to  assimilate  the  Asiatic  Provinces  and 
allowed  the  Greek  spirit  free  play,  did  the  tribes  turn 
towards  Greek  civilisation  (see  Sections   13,   14). 

After  160  the  strength  of  the  Pontic  kingdom  appears 
to  have  grown  greater.  Mithridates  III  Philopator  Phila- 
delphos  Euergetes  (169-121),  son  of  Mithridates  II,  brother 
of  Pharnaces  I  (190-169),  father  of  Mithridates  the  Great 
(121-63),^  had  a  glorious  and  successful  reign.     He  aided 

^I  follow  Th.  Reinach,  against  the  older  opinion,  in  spite  of  some 
serious  difficulties  in  his  view  (acknowledged  fully  by  himself).  He 
has  also  remodelled  the  whole  Mithridatic  genealogy,  and  reduced 
the  number  of  kings. 


Section  y :    The  History  of  Galatia.  67 

Attalus  II  in  154  against  Prusias,  became  an  ally  of  Rome, 
and  sent  troops  to  their  aid  in  the  Third  Punic  War,  and 
again  during  the  rebellion  in  Asia,  131 -129. 

In  129  Great  Phrygia  was  granted  to  Mithridates  III  by 
Manius  Aquillius  ;  and  though  the  Senate  did  not  confirm 
the  Consul's  acts,  yet  Mithridates  seems  to  have  ruled 
Phrygia  till  his  death  in  121.  But  it  seems  impossible  that 
he  could  rule  Phrygia,  unless  he  possessed  the  ascendancy 
in  Galatia.^  Yet  Van  Gelder's  suggestion  that  between 
160  and  130  Galatia  lost  its  independence  and  passed 
under  the  Pontic  domination,  is  improbable  and  unneces- 
sary. The  existence  of  two  opposite  parties  in  Galatia,  one 
favouring  the  civilised  Pergamenian  and  afterwards  the 
Roman  alliance,  and  one  the  barbaric  and  Pontic  connection, 
furnishes  a  sufficient  explanation.  At  this  period  the  Pontic 
party  was  triumphant.  But  the  ascendancy  of  Pontus,  by 
which  Galatia  was  now  surrounded  east  and  west,  was 
likely  soon  to  arouse  the  jealous  and  independent  spirit 
of  the  Gauls.  Rome,  too,  was  on  the  watch  against  any 
Asiatic  state  that  was  growing  more  powerful  than  its 
neighbours. 

Two  measures  of  Rome,  in  126  and  121,  against  the 
Pontic  rule  over  Phrygia  are  mentioned.  In  126  the  Senate 
declared  the  acts  of  Aquillius  inoperative,  and  recognised 
Phrygia  as  a  free  country.  That  decree  of  the  Senate 
remained  inoperative ;  and  in  the  negotiations  between 
Mithridates  the  Great  and  the  Roman  officers  in  B.C.  88, 
it  is  assumed  on  both  sides  that  Phrygia  had  been  given 
by  the  Romans  to  his  father  Mithridates  Euergetes.  This 
unanimous  assumption   must   be   taken  to  represent   the 

^  So  Van  Gelder,  p.  277,  rightly  argues. 


68  Historical  Introduction. 

actual  fact ;  and  recently  it  has  been  confirmed  by  an 
important  inscription  of  the  Phrygian  city,  Lysias,  quot- 
ing a  Senatus-consultum  of  B.C.  \\6}  in  which  the  Senate 
recognises  as  valid  all  the  arrangements  of  Mithridates 
Euergetes,  implying  obviously  that  he  had  been  de  facto 
ruler  of  Phrygia  till  his  death  in  121.  Then,  in  the  troubles 
that  ensued,  the  Senate  interfered  to  regulate  Phrygia,  and 
confirmed  all  that  the  king  had  done  in  the  country,  but 
took  it  away  from  his  son  Mithridates  the  Great. 

When  Mithridates  the  Great  succeeded  in  121,  he  was 
a  child  ;  and  his  mother  Laodice  ruled  with  full  power. 
The  Romans  acted  on  their  usual  principle  of  reducing  the 
strength  of  the  leading  power  in  Asia  Minor :  they  now 
took  away  Great  Phrygia  from  the  Pontic  rule,  and  made 
it  nominally  free,  though  of  course  really  dependent  on 
Rome  and  the  governor  of  the  Province  Asia.  The  anti- 
Pontic  party  among  the  Galatae  at  the  same  time  recovered 
the  ascendancy ;  and  they  fought  against  Mithridates 
in  the  operations  that  inaugurated  his  first  war  with 
Rome.^ 

Yet  the  Senate's  decree  of  126,  though  an  empty  form, 
was  appealed  to  by  Sulla  in  the  winter  of  85-84,  to  prove 
that  Mithridates  the  Great  had  never  possessed  any  right 
to  Phrygia.  Sulla  was  resting  his  argument  on  an  inopera- 
tive decree,  which  had  been  contradicted  by  the  course 
of  history.  Similiarly,  when  he  went  on  to  maintain  that 
Phrygia  had  been  made  free  and  not  tributary,  his  con- 
tention may  probably  have  been  justified  by  the  nominal 
action  of  the  Senate ;    but  the  actual  fact  disproved   his 

1  Citiis  and,  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  pt.  II,  p.  762. 
^Appian,  Mithr.,  11  and  17. 


Section  7 ;   The  History  of  Galatia.  69 

argument.  Fhrygia,  if  nominally  free,  was  treated  by  the 
Romans  as  subject,  or  at  least  dependent.  Phrygian  con- 
tingents were  enrolled  in  the  armies  that  fought  against 
Mithridates,  and  the  Roman  officers,  after  their  defeat  on 
the  river  Amneias,  tried  to  collect  a  new  army  of  Phrygians, 
but  found  them  too  unwarlike  to  be  of  any  use.  The 
epitome  of  Livy,  LXXVII,  when  it  says  that  Mithridates 
in  88  entered  Phrygia,  a  Province  of  the  Roman  people, 
may  be  using  an  expression  technically  too  strong ;  but, 
practically,  when  Mithridates  crossed  the  Phrygian  frontier, 
he  was  invading  a  country  that  was  treated  by  the  Romans 
as  dependent  upon,  and  part  of,  their  Empire. 

But  in  88  Mithridates  overran  western  Asia  Minor  down 
to  the  Aegean  Sea ;  and  Galatia  now  once  more  passed 
under  the  Pontic  ascendancy.  The  only  people  in  Asia 
from  whom  Mithridates  apprehended  any  serious  opposi- 
tion were  the  Galatians  ;  and  to  guard  against  it  he  sum- 
moned all  the  chief  men,  to  the  number  of  sixty,  to  Perga- 
mos,  where  he  had  established  his  court,  and  massacred 
them  all  except  one,  who  escaped.^  Those  tetrarchs  who 
had  not  come  to  Pergamos,  he  killed  by  secret  attacks. 
Only  three  tetrarchs  escaped. 

At  this  point  our  authorities  again  permit  a  glimpse  of 
the  divided  spirit,  which  seems  to  have  been  a  fatal  weak- 
ness to  the  Galatians  :  Mithridates  massacred  indiscrimi- 
nately his  friends  and  his  opponents  among  the  tetrarchs.^ 
There  was  therefore  a  party  that  favoured  and  one  that 
had  opposed  him. 

^  Plutarch,  de  Mul.  Virt.,  23,  and  Appian,  Mithr.,  46,  doubtless,  are 
describing  the  same  plan.  The  whole  families  of  the  tetrarchs  were 
massacred,  as  Mommsen  says,  Rom.  Hist.y  transl.,  ed.  II,  vol.  IV,  p.  46. 

^Appian,  I.e. 


JO  Historical  Introduction. 

The  result  showed  that  the  old  Gaulish  spirit  was  still 
strong  among  the  Galatae.  Instead  of  being  disheartened 
by  this  blow,  the  nation  united  ;  the  party  that  had 
favoured  the  Pontic  cause  and  facilitated  Mithridates's 
victory,  evidently  joined  heartily  in  the  resistance. 
Eumachus,  who  had  been  sent  as  satrap  to  Galatia,  was 
expelled  along  with  the  garrisons  which  he  had  intended 
to  station  in  the  Galatian  fortresses ;  and  the  Galatians 
henceforth  were  the  hearty  allies  of  Rome  in  the  wars, 
which  terminated  in  A.D.  66  in  the  complete  defeat  of 
Mithridates. 

The  massacre  of  the  tetrarchs  was  a  critical  event  in 
Galatian  history.  It  drove  the  Galatae  over  entirely  to 
the  Roman  side  ;  and  the  connection  lasted  long,  for  the 
war  was  protracted.  Not  long  after  it  we  find  the  Galatian 
army,  at  least  in  part,  armed  and  disciplined  in  the  Roman 
style.  Whereas  Greek  and  Pergamenian  civilisation  had 
apparently  failed  to  make  much  impression  in  Galatia, 
the  Roman  organisation  exercised  more  influence,  as  is 
not  unnatural,  since  the  Galatae  were  still  a  western  people 
at  heart,  essentially  unlike  the  Greek  and  Asiatic  peoples 
around  them.  As  Mommsen  says  at  a  later  date,  "  in  spite 
of  their  sojourn  of  several  hundred  years  in  Asia  Minor, 
a  deep  gulf  still  separated  these  Occidentals  from  the 
Asiatics ".  At  the  same  time  the  massacre  weakened  the 
old  tetrarchic  system,  partly  by  reducing  the  number  of 
the  great  nobles,  partly  probably  by  convincing  the  nation 
that  the  division  into  twelve  tetrarchies  was  a  serious 
weakness  against  external  attack. 

In  B.C.  74,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Third  Mithridatic 
War,  Eumachus,  the  Pontic  general,  overran  Phrygia  and 
subdued  the  Pisidians  and  Isaurians  and  Cilicia,  as  Appian 


Section  7  ;   The  History  of  Galatia.  7 1 

says  (designating  ^  as  Cecilia  that  territory  which  Tro- 
gus  calls  Lycaonia  et  Cilicia  and  Strabo  calls  the  Eleventh 
Strategia).^  The  countries  attacked  by  Eumachus,  there- 
fore, were  the  territories  lying  round  Galatia  as  enlarged  by 
the  Lycaonian  tetrarchy.  When  this  tetrarchy  is  taken 
into  account,  the  references  made  by  Trogus  and  by  Appian 
become  consistent  with  one  another,  and  give  an  outline  of 
the  fate  of  the  entire  region  lying  between  North  Galatia 
and  Cilicia  Campestris. 

Thereupon,  Deiotaros,  one  of  the  tetrarchs  who  had 
escaped  the  great  massacre,  attacked  Eumachus  and  drove 
him  out.  In  73  Lucullus  carried  the  war  into  Pontus,  and 
Galatia  was  free  henceforth  from  Pontic  armies. 

^  So  BM.  Civ.,  V  75,  see  below,  p.  log  note. 
2  See  above,  p.  64  f. 


SECTION  8. 

THE  GALATIAN  STATE. 

Strabo,  p.  567,  gives  a  sketch  of  the  Galatian  organisation 
and  government.  The  three  tribes  all  spoke  the  same 
language  and  were  of  similar  character.  Each  tribe  was 
divided  on  the  old  Gaulish  system  into  four  cantons,  called 
by  the  Greeks  tetrarchies.  Each  tetrarchy  was  administered 
by  a  special  chief  under  whom  were  a  judge  and  a  general 
and  two  lieutenant-generals.  There  was  a  senate  of  300 
members,  drawn  from  the  twelve  tetrarchies,  which  met  at 
a  place  called  Drynemeton,^  and  judged  cases  of  murder ; 
but  everything  else  was  arranged  by  the  tetrarchs  and  the 
judges.     This  constitution  lasted  till  B.C.  64. 

In  time  of  war  the  disadvantage  of  multiplication  of 
leaders  made  them  sometimes,  at  least,  entrust  the  conduct 
of  operations  to  three  chiefs,  one  for  each  tribe,  as  was 
the  case  in  B.C.  189.  In  other  respects  also  Strabo's  account 
must  not  be  pressed  too  closely  as  implying  an  unvarying, 
cast-iron  system.  But  its  general  truth  is  beyond  question. 
Strabo  was  a  very  careful  writer,  and  abundant  evidence 
was  open  to  him.     The  meeting  of  the  300  representatives 

1  M.  Perrot  took  Drynemeton  as  the  Oak-grove,  and  placed  it  seven 
hours  south-west  of  Ancyra,  where  a  few  oaks  still  grow  in  that 
treeless  land.  But  Holder,  Altcelt.  Sprachschatz,  explains  dry  as  an 
intensive  prefix,  and  nemeton  as  sanctuary. 

(72) 


Section  8:   The  Galatian  State.  y2> 

at  the  holy  place  Drynemeton  was  clearly  in  accordance 
with  an  old  Gaulish  custom.  It  may  be  compared  with 
the  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  sixty-four  Gallic 
states  at  Lugudunum  beside  the  central  altar :  this  meet- 
ing, instituted  in  its  Roman  form  in  B.C.  12,  was  "adapted 
to  a  pre-existing  national  institution,  for  ist  August,  the 
day  of  the  dedication  of  the  altar  (to  Rome  and  Augustus) 
and  of  the  meeting,  was  also  the  great  Celtic  festival  of  the 
Sungod  Lug".^ 

Doubtless  there  was  an  altar  at  Drynemeton.  The  altar, 
as  distinguished  from  the  temple,  was  a  feature  of  the 
Gaulish  religion  (and  of  all  primitive  religions). 

As  Livy  mentions,  the  Gauls  had  no  cities.  They  were 
too  barbarous  to  found  cities,  or  to  maintain  the  Phrygian 
cities.  They  dwelt  in  villages,  and  in  time  of  war  they 
sent  women  and  children,  flocks  and  herds,  to  strongholds 
on  hill  tops.^  The  chiefs  seem  to  have  maintained  rude 
state  in  castles,  surrounded  by  their  tribesmen,  and  exer- 
cising sway  over  the  subject  Phrygians  around.  The 
evidence  of  Livy  {i.e.,  of  his  authority  Polybius)  is  con- 
firmed by  the  facts  of  history  and  of  archaeological  dis- 
covery (see  Anderson  and  Crowfoot  in  Journal  of  Hellenic 
Studies,  1899,  pp.  34-130). 

There  had  been  cities  of  the  Phrygians,  Ancyra,  Gor- 
dium,  Pessinus,  Gorbeous,  and  others  unknown  to  fame. 
But  Gordium  was  utterly  destroyed  by  the  Gauls.^     Pes- 

^  Rushforth,  Latin  Histor.  Inscrip.,  p.  48  f. ;  Rhys,  Hibbert  Lectures, 
pp.  409,  421,  424. 

=2  Livy,  XXXVIII  18,15;  19,1;  19,5- 

3  It  disappeared  from  history  soon  after  190,  having  previously 
been  a  great  trade  centre,  though  not  a  large  city.  Professor  A. 
Korte  has  placed  it  at  Pebi  on  the  Sangarios,  on  a  site  which  shows 
no  remains  except  of  the  early  period. 


74  Historical  Introduction. 

sinus  was  a  city  of  importance,  but  it  was  not  Gaulish 
in  the  same  sense  as  Ancyra.  It  was  not  taken  by 
the  Gauls  until  between  190  and  164,  and  even  then 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  compromise  between  the  old 
families  and  the  Gauls.  Deiotarus,  B.C.  64-40,  ruled  the 
tribe,  not  from  Pessinus,  but  from  the  fortresses  Peion 
and  Bloukion.  Such  was  the  state  'of  things  among  the 
Tolistobogii. 

Among  the  Tectosages,  Aricyra,  which  had  been  a  great 
city  in  the  pre-Galatic  period,  became  a  mere  chief  fort 
among  the  Gauls  ;  and  Strabo  does  not  call  it  a  7roXt<?,  but 
only  a  (jipovpiov,  implying  that  it  had  not  that  municipal 
organisation  which  was  essential  to  a  TroXt?.  Gorbeous, 
an  old  Phrygian  city,  had  also  sunk  to  a  village,  and  was 
the  residence  of  Castor  about  B.C.   50. 

Among  the  Trocmi  three  forts  are  named,  Tavium  (also 
called  a  trade-centre,  ifiiropLov,  for  the  surrounding  country), 
Mithridation,  and  Danala.^ 

These  facts  show  that  the  Gaulish  conquest  caused  an 
almost  complete  destruction  of  the  civilisation  and  commerce 
of  Galatia.  The  archaeological  evidence  points  to  the  same 
conclusion.  As  Mr.  Crowfoot,  who  has  carefully  explored  a 
large  part  of  Western  Galatia,  says :  "  Most  of  these  sites 
reached  the  height  of  their  prosperity  perhaps  in  early 
times,^  and  only  supported  feeble  settlements  in  the 
Greek  and  Roman  periods.     Only  on  this  hypothesis  can 

^  Possibly  AdvaXa  is  a  form  of  the  strange  name  which  appears 
also  as  'EK8avfxava,  FXava^a,  etc.,  implying  an  original  something 
like  TdaFfiaXa  or  TdaFfiava.  This  identification  would  imply  that 
the  territory  of  the  Trocmi  extended  west  of  the  Halys  to  embrace 
the  country  called  "  Added,"  see  p.  64  f. 

'^  On  that  early  period  Mr,  Crowfoot  quotes  Histor.  Geogr.  of  Asia 
Minor,  pp.  27-35. 


Section  8:    The  Galatian  State.  75 

I  account  for  the  fact  that  early  ware  still  appears  upon 
the  surface."  ^ 

Gallic  virtues  and  faults,  which  made  a  deep  impression 
on  Polybius  from  personal  knowledge,  and  on  all  Greeks, 
were  such  as  are  natural  to  their  origin,  situation  and 
history.  They  were  haughty  and  fierce,  but  straightforward 
and  truthful  personally.  They  set  high  value  on  their  per- 
sonal promise  and  word,^  though  this  was  not  inconsistent 
with  stratagem  and  deceit  in  war.  They  were  quick  to 
resent  any  insult,  and  to  avenge  it  even  at  the  risk  of  their 
life.3 

Plutarch  speaks  of  Celts  and  Galatians  as  the  noblest 
of  barbarians,  who  never  give  way  to  vehement  sorrow  and 
mourning,  as  Egyptians,  Syrians,  Lydians,  etc.,  do.* 

Without  insisting  on  the  exact  truth  of  the  stories  about 
the  Gauls  that  are  reported  by  our  authorities,  we  note  that 
they  are  all  of  the  same  tone,  and  that  they  are  a  safe  index 
to  the  character  of  the  people,  as  reflecting  the  impression 
likely  to  be  made  by  the  northern  barbarians  on  the  Greeks. 

'^Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1899,  p.  38. 

^  Compare  the  story  of  Chiomara  ;  when  she  brought  to  her  husband 
the  head  of  her  Roman  captor,  he  said  :  "  Woman  !  Good  faith  is  a 
noble  thing ! "  knowing  that  she  must  have  broken  faith  before  she 
could  have  slain  him.  Polyb.,  XXII  21  ;  Plutarch,  de  Mul.  Virt.,  22. 
Also  the  story  of  Camma  faithful,  avenging  her  dead  husband  at  the 
cost  of  her  own  life,  Plutarch,  de  Mul.  Virt.,  20. 

'  Compare  the  story  of  the  sixty  Gaulish  nobles  whom  Mithridates 
invited  to  Pergamos  as  friends  and  treated  as  inferiors,  Plutarch,  de 
Mul.  Virt.,  23. 

*  Cons,  ad  Apoll.,  22.  H  ere  KAroi  evidently  is  used  either  in  the  generic 
sense  of  all  Celtic  tribes,  as  distinguished  from  VaKarai,  or  as  Euro- 
pean Gauls  distinguished  from  Galatae  of  Asia.  The  latter  is  more 
probable,  and  in  either  case  it  is  impossible  here  to  take  TaKdrai  as 
meaning  only  the  Gauls  of  Gallia  (in  which  sense  it  is  often  used). 


^6  Historical  Introduction. 

It  is  not  strange  that  their  qualities  should  have  impressed 
the  Greeks  so  deeply :  they  are  the  qualities  of  an  aristo- 
cracy, proud  of  their  own  individual  superiority,  which  gives 
them  a  certain  standard  of  personal  honour — qualities  that 
were  lacking  among  the  Greeks. 

So  long  as  the  Gauls  continued  to  be  a  nation  of  warriors, 
this  character  would  persist  without  serious  change.  Such, 
as  we  saw,  was  probably  the  case  with  the  old  Phrygian 
conquerors  :  the  warrior  caste  kept  itself  free  from  the 
manners  of  its  subjects.  In  the  time  of  Polybius  the 
Galatae  were  as  great  a  terror  to  the  Greeks  as  ever,  and 
one  of  the  most  striking  stories  illustrating  the  Galatian 
character  is  not  earlier  than  B.C.  88-86.^ 

Strabo  says,  p.  567,  the  Gauls  retained  their  original 
form  of  government  until  his  own  time,  i.e.,  until  the 
changes  introduced  by  Pompey,  B.C.  64,  who  appointed 
three  chiefs.  There  is,  therefore,  every  reason  to  think  that 
the  Gauls  continued  to  preserve  their  native  character, 
vigour  and  haughty  aristocratic  spirit  of  separation  from  the 
surrounding  Asian  peoples  unimpaired,  at  least  until  the 
middle  of  the  first  century ;  and  that  the  country  was  re- 
duced to  a  state  of  barbarism.  Art  and  literature  had  no 
home  there.  It  was  a  country  of  shepherds  and  rude 
warriors,  with  a  scanty  trade  carried  on  by  the  Phrygians 
of  the  few  remaining  towns. 

And  what  about  the  conquerors  }  It  is  impossible  that 
they  should  have  remained  entirely  unaffected  by  their 
new  surroundings.  Experience  and  travel  are  educative  ; 
and  the  Gauls  had  much  of  both  before  they  finally  settled 
down  in  their  new  country  as  heirs  to  the  old-standing 

^  See  Plutarch,  Mul.  Virt.,  23  (referred  to  on  p.  6g). 


Section  3:   The  Galatian  State.  77 

Phrygian  order  and  religious  organisation.  What  can  be 
discovered  as  to  the  relations  between  conquerors  and 
conquered  ? 

It  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  older  race  was 
exterminated,  or  expelled,  or  even  seriously  diminished  in 
numbers.  It  constituted  from  the  first  the  great  majority 
of  the  population,  amid  which  the  Gauls  settled  as  a  con- 
quering and  aristocratic  caste,  not  unlike  the  Normans 
among  the  Saxons  in  England  about  A.D.  1066.  All 
evidence  shows  that  the  settlement  took  place  in  a  com- 
paratively peaceful  way:  the  kings  of  the  surrounding 
lands  agreed  and  the  Phrygian  people  quietly  accepted 
the  new  situation  with  their  usual  placid  resignation. 

The  resulting  situation  was  probably  like  that  which 
occurred  in  Gaul  when  a  not  dissimilar,  though  less  peace- 
ful, settlement  occurred :  the  conquerors  took  one-third  of 
the  soil  and  left  two-thirds  to  the  older  people.^ 

The  total  number  of  Gauls  who  settled  in  Galatia  cannot 
have  been  large.  The  first  great  army  which  entered  Asia 
Minor  with  Leonnorios  and  Lutafios  in  278  is  stated  by 
Livy  ^  to  have  numbered  20,000,  of  which  one-half  were 
armed  men :  the  rest  presumably  being  women  and  chil- 
dren. Others  afterwards  joined  them ;  but  these  seem  not 
to  have  been  so  important.  The  births  in  the  following 
hundred  years  are  not  likely  to  have  much  more  than 
counterbalanced  the  deaths  in  the  unceasing  wars. 

This  small  aristocratic  caste,  then,  owned  one-third  of 
the  whole  country ;  and  the  writers  who  describe  their 
wars  in  the  second  century  think  only  of  the  Gauls  and 
never  allude  to  the  subject  population.     Fortunately,  they 

^Caesar,  Bell.  Gall.,  I  31. 

^  Livy,  XXXVIII  16  (on  the  authority,  doubtless,  of  Polybius). 


yS  Historical  Introduction. 

give  an  unusually  detailed  description  of  the  Gaulish 
manners  and  men  and  women,  from  which  we  can  pic- 
ture their  condition  in  that  century. 

Evidently  they  did  not  take  to  agriculture  or  to  trade. 
They  were  warriors  ;  and,  so  far  were  they  from  conde- 
scending to  adopt  the  improved  tactics  and  weapons  of 
the  disciplined  Greek  armies,  that  they  were  still  fighting 
naked  ^  in  B.C.  189,  without  order  or  tactics,  armed  with 
swords  and  long  wooden  or  wicker  shields  ;  and  Polybius, 
who  was  writing  after  145,  evidently  considered  that  these 
customs  still  continued  among  them.  Their  simple  plan 
of  battle  was  that  one  fierce,  terrible  charge,  which  swept 
almost  every  Greek  army  before  it  like  chaff  before  the 
wind,  but  which  skilful  opponents  soon  learned  to  elude. 
They  offered  up  their  captives  in  sacrifice  to  the  Celtic  gods. 

That  is  true  to  the  old  Gaulish  customs.  Even  in  216, 
Hannibal's  Gaulish  allies  fought  naked  at  Cannae.^  Caesar 
and  other  writers  mention  the  Gaulish  custom  of  sacrificing 
their  captives  (pp.  61,  133).^ 

A  people  of  that  character  cannot  be  thought  of  as 
agriculturists.  In  their  own  land  they  had  thought  it  dis- 
honourable to  cultivate  the  ground,  as  Cicero  mentions ;  * 

^Livy,  XXXVIII  21.  Not  merely  without  armour,  but  actually 
without  clothing,  which  they  took  off  for  battle,  showing  their  skin, 
which  the  Greeks  remarked  on  as  white,  because  they  never  removed 
their  clothing  at  any  other  time  (whereas  the  Greeks  were  accustomed 
to  daily  naked  exercise,  and  their  skin  became  darker).  See  Grote's 
note  on  Ch.  LXXIII,  p.  369,  vol.  IX,  and  Xenophon,  Hdl.^  Ill  4,  19. 

2  Livy,  XXIX  46,  6. 

3  Compare  Diodor.,  V  32,  6;  Livy,  XXXVIII  47,  12;  Cicero,  dc 
Rep.,  Ill  9,  15  and  21,  p.  Font.,  14,  31;  Caesar,  Bell.  Gall.,Wl  16; 
Athenaeus,  IV,  p.  160. 

*DeRep.,  Ill  9,  15. 


Section  8:  The  Galatian  State.  79 

and  they  were  not  likely  to  change  as  a  conquering  race 
in  Asia  Minor.  So  far  as  their  third  of  the  land  was 
cultivated,  doubtless  the  work  was  done  by  the  subject 
population.  The  Gauls,  as  Van  Gelder^  says,  were 
pastoral,  so  far  as  they  were  anything  except  warriors  ; 
and  the  pastoral  life,  while  it  kept  them  hardy,  would  also 
maintain  their  barbarism  and  isolation  from  the  settled 
old  population  :  the  shepherd  is  the  natural  enemy  of  the 
agriculturist.  But,  doubtless,  the  labour  was  done  almost 
entirely  by  the  subject  Phrygians ;  and  the  Gauls,  when 
not  at  war,  feasted  in  the  castles  of  the  nobles  in  the  rude 
but  plentiful  style  described  by  Phylarchus.^ 

But,  if  the  Gaulish  tribes  proper  were  so  few  in  numbers, 
how  shall  we  account  for  the  immense  numbers  who  are 
mentioned  as  composing  the  Galatian  armies  in  the  second 
and  first  centuries  before  Christ  ?  We  notice  that  such 
numbers  do  not  appear  in  the  third  century.  The  Gauls, 
then,  are  found  as  mercenaries  in  the  kings'  armies,  or  as 
raiding  bands.  If  not  regular  mercenaries,  they  appear  as 
acting  in  conjunction  with  some  king's  army,  and  not  as 
constituting  great  armies  of  their  own. 

Evidently  Mommsen's  view  is  right  that  the  Galatian 
state,  after  Galatia  was  constituted  a  political  reality  about 
232,  contained  both  Gauls  and  Phrygians.  The  old  native 
population  was  merged  in  the  new  state. 

Only  in  this  way  can  we  account  for  the  recorded  facts. 
Livy's  estimate  of  the  Galatian  loss  in  B.C.  189  is  18,000 
slain,  and  40,000  captives  at  Mt.  Olympus,^  and  8000  slain 

^  Dc  Gallis  in  Graecia  et  Asia,  ch.  V,  de  Gal.  moribus,  p.  193. 
2  About  B.C.  215,  Athenceus,  IV,  p.  150. 

3"Numerus  captivorum  baud  dubie  quadraginta  millia  explevit," 
Livy,  XXXVIII  23.     See  p.  57. 


8o  Historical  Introduction. 

with  a  great  number  of  captives  a|t  Mt.  Magaba.  How  can 
these  numbers  be  reconciled  with  our  indubitable  informa- 
tion as  to  the  small  numbers  of  the  Gauls  ?  Evidently  the 
captives  (about  whom  Livy  is  very  positive)  included  not 
merely  persons  of  Gaulish  race,  but  also  their  Phrygian 
servants  and  dependants.  No  doubt  the  Gauls  had 
learned  to  make  the  most  use  of  the  Phrygian  people, 
as  the  Dorian  conquerors  of  Laconia  did  of  the  Helot 
population.  Now  all  captives  were  useful  as  spoil ;  all  could 
be  sold  to  increase  the  prize-money  of  the  victorious 
Romans ;  all  were  treated  as  equally  belonging  to  the 
hostile  state. 

But  this  fact,  which  can  hardly  be  doubted,  shows  us 
Galatia  as  a  roughly  unified  state,  containing  two  distinct 
classes  of  population,  but  with  both  classes  driven  to  co- 
operate against  an  invasion,  and  both  classes  treated  by 
the  enemy  without  distinction  as  Galatae.  The  headlong 
flight  of  the  Galatians  in  both  battles  is  easily  explained, 
when  the  composition  of  their  defensive  armies  is  taken 
into  account.  Hence,  also,  we  understand  why  Aemilius 
Paullus  spoke  so  strongly  in  the  senate  of  the  mixture 
among  the  Galatian  foes.^ 

Lucullus  had  30,000  Galatae  in  his  army,  as  he  marched 
from  Bithynia  into  Pontus.^  That  contingent  cannot  be 
taken  as  the  whole  fighting  force  of  Galatia.  A  consider- 
able number  must  have  been  left  in  the  country  to  guard 
the  home  population,  the  families  and  the  property,  from 
the  Pontic  attacks.  There  can  hardly  have  been  less 
than  60,000  fighting  men  in  arms,  when  30,000  were 
serving   in    Bithynia.     That   is   the   army   of  a   country, 

1  Livy,  XXXVIII  46.  2  Plutarch  Lucullus,  14- 


Section  8:   The  Galatian  State.  8i 

and  not  of  a  small  separate  ruling  caste  within  the 
country. 

Obviously  no  distinction  was  made  by  external  nations 
as  to  the  stock  from  which  sprang  the  soldiers  in  these 
armies.  They  are  all  summed  up  by  historians  as  Galatae  ; 
and  this  term  in  those  cases  is  to  be  taken  simply  as  "  men 
of  Galatia,"  and  not  as  "  men  of  Gaulish  blood  ".  Galatia 
had  been  since  232  recognised  as  a  political  fact,  a  definitely 
bounded  country  with  its  own  form  of  government ;  and 
all  who  belonged  to  the  country  and  contributed  to  its 
strength  were  Galatae. 

But  some  New  Testament  critics  have  either  practically 
ignored  this  in  their  exposition  of  the  "  Galatian  Question," 
or  even  explicitly  denied  it.^  We  must  therefore  examine 
more  closely  the  use  of  the  name  Galatian  TdXaTT]'^.  It  is 
not,  of  course,  denied  that  the  name  often  was  associated 
by  the  ancients  with  Gaulish  descent.  The  element  in  the 
Galatian  state  that  gave  it  firmness,  vigour  and  character 
was  Gaulish  ;  and  people  ignored  and  forgot  about  the 
undistinguished  element. 

In  the  fragmentary  records  of  enfranchisement  at 
Delphi,^  we  are  struck  with  the  number  of  Galatian  slaves 
that  were  set  free  between  the  years    169  and    100  B.C. 

^  So  e.g.  Professor  F.  Blass, /4c^fl  Apostolorum,  1895,  p.  176  :  Gravius 
autem  errarunt  qui  Galatas  Pauli  intellegi  voluerunt  [Phrygas  etj  Lycaonas, 
quippe  qui  a  Romanis  Galatiae  provinciae  essent  attributi  ;  neque  enim,  ut 
mittamalia,  ea  re  ex  [Phry gibus  et]  Lycaonibus  Galli  facti  erant.  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  haste  with  which  North  Galatian  theorists 
decide  the  case,  that  one  has  almost  everywhere  to  amend  their 
statements  in  essential  points  (as  here  by  inserting  two  words  twice) 
before  one  can  begin  to  discuss  it. 

2  Best  given  in  Collitz,  Sammlung  der  Gr.  Dialektinschr . ,  II,  parts 
3-5 ;  also  Wescher-Foucart  Inscr.  rec.  a'Delphes. 

6 


82  Historical  Introduction. 

There  are  more  from  Galatia  than  from  any  other  country, 
except  Syria  and  Thrace.^  This  is  in  itself  strange,  if 
Gauls  by  blood  must  be  understood  by  the  term  Galatae. 
Those  proud  and  untamable  warriors,  "the  noblest  of 
barbarians,"  were  among  the  three  most  frequent  nations 
in  slavery !  We  should  have  imagined  from  the  pictures 
sketched  by  Polybius,  Plutarch,  and  others,  that  the  Gaul 
would  fight  to  the  death  and  would  pine  in  captivity. 
Moreover,  the  slaves  that  were  enfranchised  were  those 
who  behaved  peaceably  and  well,  and  worked  out  their 
freedom  by  their  industry. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  some  of  the  captives,  Phrygians 
by  birth,  whom  Manlius  took  in  189,  were  among  those 
Galatian  slaves  whose  enfranchisement  is  recorded  at 
Delphi,  for  many  of  his  captives  were,  beyond  doubt, 
sold  in  the  slave  markets  of  the  Greek  world. 

Further,  what  has  become  of  the  Phrygians,  the  nation 
marked  out  by  nature  for  slavery?  Compared  with  the 
Galatians  in  the  deeds  of  enfranchisement  they  are  as 
three  to  eight !  Yet  Socrates  remarks  on  the  industry  of 
the  Phrygian  slaves  ;  and  a  Phiygian  slave  is  a  frequent 
character  in  the  Greek  drama.^ 

Further,  one  of  these  enfranchised  slaves  is  "  Sosias, 
by  nationality  Galatian,  by  trade  a  shoemaker  "  ;  ^  and  he 
was  set  free  between  B.C.    150  and    140.      Another  was 

^  Stahelin,  Gesch.  der  Kleinas.  Galater,  p.  57,  counts  thirty-three 
Syrians,  twenty-eight  Thracians,  ten  Galatians,  eight  Macedonians, 
five  Sarmatians,  four  Illyrians,  four  Cappadocians,  four  Armenians, 
three  Phrygians,  three  Arabs,  two  Jews,  two  Lydians,  etc.  A  few 
more  may  be  identified,  e.g.,  a  slave  Armenios  is  certainly  Armenian 
(cp.  Strabo,  p.  304),  in  W.  F.,  258. 

2  See  "The  Slaves  in  the  Wasps,"  Classical  Review,  1898,  p.  335. 

3W.  F.,  429. 


Section  8:   The  Galatian  State.  83 

Athenais,  a  skilled  artisan  (re^^i^tTt?),^  B.C.  140-100.  We 
remember  that  the  trades  and  handicrafts  in  Galatia  were 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  subject  population,  while  the 
Gaulish  aristocracy  had  war  as  their  only  trade  ;  and  we 
refuse  to  recognise  in  Sosias  a  Gaulish  noble  turned  shoe- 
maker and  good  at  his  trade,  or  in  Athenais  a  Gaulish 
lady  who  had  taken  to  a  handicraft. 

Another  of  these  enfranchised  slaves  from  Galatia  was 
called  Maiphates,  a  typical  Anatolian  and  especially 
Phrygian  name  ;  ^  and  Strabo,  p.  304,  mentions  that  it 
was  customary  for  slaves  to  bear  names  characteristic  of 
their  nation. 

The  case  is  clear.  These  "  Galatian  "  slaves  were  simply 
brought  from  Galatia  and  sold  in  the  slave-market,  labelled 
with  the  name  of  the  country  from  which  they  had  been 
brought. 

It  would  appear  that  Galatia  was  a  great  seat  of  the 
slave  trade.  Ammianus  mentions  Galatae,  XXII  7,  8,  as 
having  in  their  hands  even  the  trade  in  Gothic  slaves.  It 
is  a  feature  of  the  country  still,  which  has  been  preserved 
from  ancient  times,  that  the  same  trades  persist  in  special 
places  from  generation  to  generation.  The  Galatian  slave 
trade  was  likely  to  be  much  stimulated  in  the  third  century 
B.C.,  when  a  considerable  addition  was  made  to  the  popu- 
lation and  a  great  deal  of  the  land  was  taken  away  from 
the  former  owners.  The  food  supply  must  have  become 
insufficient  ;  and  the  slave  market  was  the  natural  resource. 
Even  in  countries  such  as  Boeotia,  where  ordinarily  the 
father  had  no  right  to  sell  his  children  into  slavery,  it  was 

1  Collitz,  2154. 

2  See  "  Phrygo-Galatian  Slaves,"  Classical  Review,  1898,  p.  342. 


84  Historical  Introduction. 

allowed  that  he  should  do  so  in  case  of  destitution  ;  while 
Phrygians  and  Galatians  are  mentioned  as  being  in  the 
regular  habit  of  selling  their  children. 

The  Galatian  customs  in  treating  slaves  may  then  be 
assumed  to  spring,  not  from  Gaul,  but  from  the  Asiatic 
practice.  One  of  these  customs  was  that  they  marked 
their  slaves  by  cuts  or  wounds,  as  Artemidorus  the  Lydian 
mentions.  The  word  which  he  uses  might  refer  to 
branding,  but  his  meaning  in  this  case  is  shown  by  the 
context.^ 

The  same  custom  has  been  practised  in  the  country  until 
recently,  and  one  sees  still  ex-slaves  thus  marked  by  cuts 
on  the  face,  which  have  been  prevented  from  closing,  so  as 
to  leave  scars.^  We  may  then  assume  that  this  was  the 
usual  practice  of  central  Asia  Minor  in  general  ;  but  the 
pre-eminence  of  the  Galatian  slave  traders  made  it  known 
to  the  world  as  a  Galatian  custom. 

It  seems  clearly  proved  that  so  early  as  the  second 
century  B.C.  the  Phrygian  origin  of  the  larger  half  of  the 
Galatian  population  was  forgotten  by  ordinary  people  of 
the  surrounding  countries  ;  and  the  whole  state  was  thought 
of  as  Galatia  and  its  people  as  Galatians. 

The  distinction,  of  course,  was  much  more  clearly  per- 
ceived in  the  country,  where  the  aristocratic  class  was 
marked  off  from  the  masses.  But  even  in  the  country 
a  certain  approximation  was  brought  about  through  the 
influence  of  the  common  religion. 

Once  more,  Pausanias  mentions  that  on  account  of  the 
boar  having  ravaged  Lydia,  where  Attis  was,  the  Galatians 

^  Among  the  Thracians  noble  children,  and  among  the  Galatae 
slaves,  are  marked  (o-rt^oirai),  Oneirocr.,  I  8. 
^  Mrs.  Ramsay,  Everyday  Life  in  Turkey,  p,  7. 


Section  3:   The  Galatian  State.  85 

that  lived  at  Pessinus  refrained  from  eating  pork.^  It  is 
clear  that  the  abstinence  from  swine's  flesh  was  an  old 
Asiatic  and  East  Anatolian  custom,  found  also  at  the 
temple  of  Comana  Pontica.  The  Gaulish  stock  was  evi- 
dently weaker  in  Pessinus  than  in  most  places,^  and  half 
of  the  higher  priests  were  of  the  old  native  families.  Evi- 
dently Pausanias  used  the  word  Galatian  in  that  passage 
of  the  entire  Pessinuntine  population,  and  not  only  of  the 
section  that  had  Gaulish  blood. 

^  VII  17,  10,  YaKarav  oi  Il«r(rivovPTa  €x.ovt€s,  vS>v  ov)(  anrofxevoi. 
2  See  p.  62. 


SECTION  9. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  GALATIA. 

Few  traces  of  the  old  Gaulish  religion  can  be  detected  in 
Galatia.  It  would  be  difficult  to  mention  any  except  the 
sacrifice  of  captives,  which  was  practised  as  late  as  about 
B.C.  160,  and  presumably  the  rites  at  Drynemeton.^  It  is 
hardly  probable  that  the  Gaulish  religion  was  wholly  dis- 
used or  forgotten  in  the  last  century  B.C.  But,  certainly, 
almost  all  the  references — unfortunately  very  few — to  Gal- 
atic  religion  point  to  the  rapid  adoption  of  the  ancient  and 
impressive  religion  of  Cybele.  That  was  the  one  possession 
of  the  old  Phrygian  people  that  exercised  a  really  great 
influence  on  the  world.  The.Galatians  may  perhaps  have 
modified  to  some  degree  the  character  of  the  Phrygian 
ritual  by  their  own  nature  and  customs,  as  both  the  Phryges 
and  the  Greeks  did.^  But  we  have  no  evidence  on  this 
point. 

There  were  two  reasons  why  the  Gauls  should  adopt  the 
religion  of  the  conquered  race. 

(i)  They  had  to  govern  the  conquered  people ;  and  the 
easiest  way  of  doing  so  was  to  use  the  already  existing 
forms  of  rule.     The  priests  of  the  great  religious  centres 

^  See  p.  73.  2  See  p.  41  f, 

(86) 


Section  g :   The  Religion  of  Galatia.         87 

had  hitherto  been  dynasts  and  had  ruled  the  country  round  ; 
and  the  GauHsh  chiefs  made  themselves  easily  heirs  to  the 
immense  power  of  the  Phrygian  priests  by  taking  their 
place  as  far  as  possible.  At  Pessinus  the  Gauls  took  only 
half  the  places  in  the  great  priestly  college.  It  is  uncertain 
whether  this  can  be  taken  as  typical  for  other  cases  ;  but 
probably  it  was  not  typical.  Pessinus  was  the  greatest  and 
most  powerful  of  the  sanctuaries  ;  it  was  not  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  the  Gauls  until  after  189,  and  would  certainly 
be  able  to  make  a  much  better  bargain  with  the  Gauls 
than  the  lesser  hiera  could.  Probably  the  higher  priest- 
hoods elsewhere  were  almost  all  monopolised  by  Gaulish 
chiefs  :  examples  on  pp.  62,  88. 

(2)  A  strange  people  always  found  it  needful  to  adopt 
the  gods  of  their  new  country.  Those  gods  were  the  gods 
of  the  land ;  and  any  calamity  that  happened  to  the  immi- 
grants was  naturally  attributed  to  the  wrath  of  the  native 
gods,  offended  at  the  loss  of  their  privileges  :  compare  the 
story  in  2  Kings  XVII  26.  Thus  Cybele  was  soon  an 
object  of  worship  to  the  Gaulish  conquerors. 

An  example  of  the  influence  of  the  Anatolian  religion  on 
the  Galatian  tribes,  probably  as  early  as  the  second  century, 
is  found  in  a  tale  recorded  by  Plutarch.^  The  wife  of 
Sinatos,  one  of  the  most  influential  of  the  tetrarchs,  was 
Kamma,  a  beautiful  woman,  much  respected  for  her  char- 
acter and  wisdom  and  kindliness  to  the  subject  people.^ 

^  De  Mul.  Virt.,  20;  Amat.,  22. 
TToOtWTf  Tois  vnrjKoois  8ta(f)ep6vTa>s  vtt  evfieveias  kol  ^^p^^ororj^roj. 
Plutarch's  authority,  some  earlier  writer  (possibly  Polybius,  from 
whom  Mul.  Virt.  22  is  quoted),  undoubtedly  understood  vitt^kool  as 
the  subject  Phrygiaji  population,  whom  most  of  the  Gauls  treated 
with  harshness  and  contempt. 


88  Historical  Introduction. 

She  was  hereditary  priestess  of  Artemis,^  and  the  magnifi- 
cent attire  in  which  she  was  seen  in  the  processions  and 
sacrifices  of  the  goddess  made  her  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
the  country. 

Sinorix,  another  tetrarch,  fell  in  love  with  her,  and  slew 
Sinatos  by  treachery.  Then  he  wooed  Kamma,  and  made 
a  merit  of  having  murdered  Sinatos  from  love  of  her,  and 
not  from  malice  of  heart.  Her  friends  pressed  her  to 
accept  Sinorix,  who  was  a  man  of  specially  great  influence  ; 
and  she  accepted  him,  and  invited  him  to  complete  the 
betrothal  in  presence  of  the  goddess.  When  he  came,  she 
led  him  before  the  altar  of  Artemis.  Then,  taking  a  cup, 
she  poured  a  libation,  drank  of  the  cup,  and  handed  it  to 
him  to  drink.  When  she  saw  that  he  had  drunk,  she  cried 
out  calling  the  goddess  to  witness  that  for  this  day  alone 
had  she  survived  Sinatos,  and  that  now  having  avenged  his 
death  she  was  going  down  to  join  him.  Then  to  Sinorix 
she  added  :  "  For  you,  let  your  folk  prepare  a  tomb  instead 
of  a  marriage".  The  Gaul,  as  the  poison  began  to  work, 
leaped  on  to  his  chariot,  hoping  to  work  off  the  effect 
through  the  rapid  tossing  motion  ;  but  he  soon  changed 
from  the  car  to  a  litter,  and  expired  the  same  evening  (pre- 
sumably on  the  homeward  road).  Kamma  heard  of  his 
death,  and  died  rejoicing. 

Van  Gelder  (p.  199)  remarks  that  the  ceremonial  preceding 
the  marriage— formal  betrothal,  the  great  crowd  of  people 
convoying  the  pair,  the  offering  of  vows  at  the  altar  of 
Artemis,  the  drinking  of  the  pair  from  a  common  cup — 
must  be  Gaulish,  and  certainly  is  not  Greek  or  Oriental. 
His  judgment   seems  to  be   mistaken.      Professor    Rhys, 

^narpiaos  Upaxrvvr),  Plut.,  A  mat.,  22. 


Section  g  :   The  Religion  of  G alalia.         89 

when  consulted,  says  that  he  knows  of  no  Celtic  custom 
suggesting  that  bride  and  bridegroom  drank  of  the  same 
cup  as  a  ceremony  of  marriage,  or  of  betrothal ;  but  that 
one  expression  ^  may  possibly  (though  not  necessarily) 
indicate  that  eating  of  the  same  dish,  something  like  con- 
farreatio  in  the  Roman  religious  ceremony,  was  a  marriage 
custom. 

Now  drinking  of  the  common  cup  is  to  this  day  part  of 
the  Greek  marriage  ceremony  ;  ^  and  this  makes  it  probable 
that  the  custom  was  not  Gallic,  but  part  of  old  Anatolian 
ritual.  Plutarch's  words  convey  the  impression  that 
Kamma  made  the  ceremonial  as  priestess,  that  it  belonged 
to  the  ritual  of  Artemis  and  was  novel  to  Sinorix.  Artemis, 
then,  was  here  not  a  Greek  name  for  a  Gallic  goddess 
(which  would  be  a  reasonable  hypothesis  at  the  first 
glance).  The  Artemis,  whose  priestess  Kamma  was,  was 
the  Anatolian  Goddess,  Ma  or  Bellona,  in  whose  ritual  the 
annual  procession,  the  Exodos  of  the  deity,  formed  an 
important  part.  In  that  procession  Kamma,  in  the  gorgeous 
robes  of  the  goddess  herself,  whom  she  represented,  would 
play  the  conspicuous  part  that  Plutarch  describes. 

With  regard  to  marriage  ceremonial  in  the  Anatolian 
religion,  we  have  unfortunately  no  evidence.  While  in  all 
probability  true  marriage  was  not  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  that  religion,  still  it  is  certain  that  the  relation 

^  At  the  opening  of  the  story  of  Kulhwch  and  Olwen,  a  prince  wants 
a  wife  of  the  same  food,  with  himself.  This  may  refer  to  a  marriage 
ceremony  of  eating  food  together,  but  more  probably  implies  a  wife 
of  rank  fitting  her  to  sit  always  along  with  him  at  food. 

^The  Kubarra,  or  assistant,  who  also  drinks  of  the  same  cup,  is 
thenceforward  a  close  relation  :  if  a  man,  he  may  not  marry  the 
bride,  if  the  bridegroom  dies :  if  a  woman,  she  may  not  marry  the 
groom,  if  the  wife  dies. 


90  Historical  Introduction. 

between  man  and  woman  was  always  a  very  important 
fact  in  it,  being  closely  associated  with  the  temple  service 
and  considered  as  a  religious  act ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
some  common  ritualistic  ceremony  would  be  performed  in 
the  temple  and  before  the  altar  of  the  goddess  by  the  two 
parties.  It  is  also  certain  that  a  mixed  cup  was  a  feature 
in  the  Phrygian  Mysteries,  and  that  the  celebrants  partook 
of  this  cup. 

It  is  quite  probable,  therefore,  that  this  drinking  of 
the  cup  in  the  Mysteries  might  be  adapted  to  a  sort  of 
marriage  ceremony.  A  similar  adaptation  is  known  in 
respect  of  another  act  in  the  Mysteries.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  celebrant  initiated  in  the  Phrygian  Mysteries 
pronounced  the  formula, "  I  have  escaped  evil,  I  have  found 
a  better"  ;  and  that  this  same  formula  was  pronounced  as 
part  of  the  Athenian  marriage  ceremony. 

That  some  ceremony  in  the  temple  of  Artemis  formed 
an  accompaniment  of  marriage  in  ancient  Anatolia  is 
indicated  in  one  place.  In  the  legend  of  St.  Abercius,  it 
is  said  to  have  been  arranged  that,  after  the  return  of 
Verus  from  the  Parthian  War,  his  marriage  with  Lucilla, 
daughter  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  should  be  celebrated  in  the 
temple  of  Artemis  at  Ephesus.  As  the  legend,  though 
embodying  a  real  tradition,  was  not  written  down  before 
about  A.D.  400,  it  would  be  a  plausible  explanation  that 
"  this  detail  is  suggested  (to  the  person  who  gave  literary 
form  to  the  legend)  by  the  Christian  ceremonial  of  marry- 
ing in  church  ".^  But  the  story  of  Kamma  suggests  that 
the  author  may  have  correctly  incorporated  in  the  legend 
of  St.  Abercius  a  detail  taken  from  the  pagan  marriage 

^  So  in  Expositor,  April,  1889,  p.  256. 


Section  g  :   The  Religion  of  Galatia.         g  i 

ceremonial  of  Asia  Minor,  for  he  wrote  before  paganism 
was  extinct  in  the  country.^ 

The  romance  of  Kamma  carries  us  back  to  the  time 
when  relations  between  the  ruling  Gauls  and  the  subject 
Phrygians  were  beginning  to  be  less  purely  that  of  lord 
and  serf.  Kamma  was  recognised  by  the  Phrygians  as 
a  friend,  partly  because  of  her  kindliness  to  them,  still 
more  because  she  was  a  priestess  of  their  religion. 

It  is  most  unfortunate  that  no  clue  is  given  in  the  story 
to  her  date,  except  that  she  lived  and  died  before  B.C.  86.  If 
the  suspicion  expressed  above,  that  Polybius  was  Plutarch's 
authority,  be  correct,  she  could  not  be  much  later  than 
B.C.  140.  That  is  probable  from  other  facts  of  history, 
stated  in  Section  7.  It  was  during  the  period  181- 160  that 
the  moderating  and  civilising  influence  was  strongest ;  and 
this  influence  was  thereafter  weakened.  Kamma  repre- 
sents the  progressive  and  milder  type  among  the  Gauls. 
However  that  may  be,  the  second  century  is  the  period  to 
which,  doubtless,  the  incident  belongs. 

The  tale  points,  beyond  doubt,  to  the  inference  that 
participation  in  the  common  religion  led  to  a  gradual  ap- 
proximation between  the  Gauls  and  the  Phrygians  of 
Galatia.  This  is  in  itself  probable  :  a  common  religion 
was  the  uniting  bond  in  every  society  or  association  in 
ancient  time. 

Again,  Deiotaros  was  devoted  to  divination  and  augury, 
and  guided  his  life  by  them.    According  to  Cicero,  who  had 

^  Abb6  Duchesne  places  the  composition  of  the  Abercius  legend 
much  later  than  I  do.  His  arguments  seem  to  be  wholly  founded  on 
misapprehension,  as  Prof.  A.  Zahn,  Forsch.  zur  Gesch.  des  N.  T.  Kanons, 
V,  p.  62  «,  has  recognised  :  see  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  pp.  709 
ff,  723  ff. 


92  Historical  Introduction. 

seen  a  good  deal  of  him,  and  conversed  with  him  on  this 
subject,  comparing  their  augural  principles,  he  never  did 
anything  important  without  taking  the  omens.  He  often 
turned  back  from  a  journey,  even  after  several  days'  pro- 
gress, when  an  unfavourable  omen  occurred  ;  and  he  won 
Cicero's  heart  by  declaring  that  the  favourable  omens  which 
accompanied  him,  as  he  went  to  join  Pompey  before  the 
battle  of  Pharsalos,  had  come  true,  for  they  had  led  him  to 
defend  the  senate  and  freedom  and  constitutional  govern- 
ment, and  the  glory  of  this  conduct  outweighed  in  his 
estimation  the  loss  of  territory  by  which  Caesar  had  pun- 
ished him. 

The  augury  which  he  followed,  and  which  had  once 
saved  his  life,  was  very  different  from  the  Roman  prin- 
ciples of  interpretation.  It  drew  omens  from  almost  all 
birds,  whereas  the  Romans  paid  regard  only  to  a  few  ;  it 
interpreted  their  flight  and  direction  in  different  ways, 
sometimes  drawing  a  conclusion  exactly  the  opposite  of 
the  Romans.^ 

Deiotaros's  augury  was  not  of  Gaulish  origin.  It  was 
that  of  Cilicians,  Pamphylians,  Phrygians,  Pisidians,  Ly- 
cians.2  It  was  the  system  of  which  an  Ephesian  fragment 
has  been  preserved,^  The  Great  Goddess  of  Asia  Minor 
made  Phrygian  birds  fly  and  had  taught  her  priests  to 
interpret  the  signs.  Pausanias  (X  21)  mentions  that  the 
Gauls  did  not  practice  augury  (yet  see  Diodorus,  V  31,  3). 

^  Cicero  de  Div.,  I  15,  26  f.  ;  II  8,  20 ;  36,  76  f.  ;  37,  78,  composed 
in  B.C.  44. 

^Cicero  de  Div.,  I  15,  26,  compare  De  Legibus,  II  13,  33. 

'  In  the  collections  of  Hicks,  Brit.  Mus.,  678  ;  Roberts,  144  ;  Roehl, 
499;  Cauer,  478;  Bechtel,  145;  see  Bouch6-Leclercq,  Hist,  de  la 
Divin.,  I,  p.  140  f. 


Section  g :   The  Religion  of  G alalia.         93 

Aelian  mentions  that,  when  a  plague  of  locusts  afflicts 
the  country,  the  Galatians  of  Asia  offer  prayers  and  perform 
rites  invoking  certain  birds,^  which  come  and  destroy  the 
locusts.  Aelian  does  not  vouch  for  the  truth  of  this,  but 
it  is  the  truest  thing  in  his  book.  I  have  seen  the  locust 
bird  often  during  the  plague  that  ended  in  1882.^  It  is  a 
singularly  beautiful  bird  of  bright  and  variegated  plumage, 
about  the  size  of  a  starling,  I  should  think,  which  follows 
and  preys  on  the  armies  of  locusts,  and  is  never  seen  at 
any  other  time  in  the  country.  That  the  inhabitants  would 
pary  for  the  birds  and  invoke  them  with  rites,  as  soon  as 
the  locusts  appeared,  may  be  regarded  as  certain.  Doubt- 
less they  do  so  to  the  present  day. 

This  custom  is  attributed  to  the  Galatians  by  Aelian, 
but  it  was  obviously  not  a  Gaulish  custom,  but  a  native 
Anatolian  practice,  which  the  immigrant  Gauls  adopted. 
The  persistence  of  ancient  feeling  about  locusts  is  note- 
worthy in  the  horror  with  which  the  idea  of  eating  them 
is  still  regarded  in  Anatolia,  whereas  the  Arab  tribes  eat 
them  with  relish.  The  same  contrast  between  the  natives 
of  Phrygia  or  of  Pontus  and  the  Arabs  struck  St.  Jerome 
in  the  fourth  century.^  This,  incidentally,  proves  how  keen 
was  his  observation  as  he  travelled  through  the  country, 
and  confirms  his  other  statements  about  the  people. 

In  the  inscriptions  of  the  Roman  period  no  allusion  is 
made  to  any  religion  except  that  of  the  old  Phrygian  gods 
and  that  of  the  Emperors.     It  is  possible,  even  probable, 

^  Aelian,  D«  Naf.  Anim.,  XVII  19 :  read  ta-Tiv  Stv  according  to  Valc- 
kenaer's  certain  emendation. 

3  On  the  facts  and  the  superstitions  connected  with  locusts  in  Asia 
Minor  see  my  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  274  ff. 

*  Jerome,  Adv.  Jovin.,  II  7. 


94  Historical  Introduction. 

that  the  Koinon  of  Galatians,  by  which  the  imperial  reli- 
gion was  maintained,  was  the  successor  of  the  old  meeting 
at  Drynemeton,  and  thus  concentrated  in  itself  the  relics 
of  Gaulish  feeling  and  cultus  ;  but  the  officials  mentioned 
do  not  differ  from  the  ordinary  type  in  the  provincial  asso- 
ciations. 

The  inscriptions  (all  of  Roman  time)  alluding  to  the 
religion  of  private  individuals  are  quite  undistinguishable 
from  the  ordinary  Phrygian  votive  inscriptions,  except  that 
the  personal  names  are  often  recognisably  Celtic.  The 
chief  collection  of  inscriptions  from  the  country  districts, 
distinguished  from  the  city  of  Ancyra,  is  that  of  J.  G.  C. 
Anderson  in  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1 899. 


SECTION   lo. 

GALATIA  AS  A  ROMAN  CLIENT  STATE. 

At  the  pacification  and  re-organisation  of  the  East  in 
B.C.  64,  Galatia  was  placed  by  Pompey  under  the  rule  of 
three  chiefs,  Deiotaros,  Brogitaros,  and  a  third  unknown, 
retaining  the  old  triple  division  according  to  the  three 
tribes,  Tolistobogii,  Trocmi,  and  Tectosages,  but  discard- 
ing the  subdivision  into  tetrarchies.  The  ruling  tetrarchic 
families  had  been  reduced  to  three  at  the  great  massacre. 
Moreover,  the  Romans  always  liked  to  have  some  single 
head  in  each  district  with  whom  they  might  conveniently 
communicate ;  and  it  was  against  their  policy  to  raise  up 
a  single  king  in  whose  hands  the  whole  power  of  the 
Galatian  state  should  be  concentrated.  But  the  ambition 
of  the  leading  Gauls  had  led  to  at  least  one  previous 
attempt  at  monarchy ;  and  the  same  cause  is  discernible 
in  the  following  period,  until  from  B.C.  44  onwards  there 
was  a  single  king  of  Galatia. 

Pompey  did  not  restore  to  Galatia  the  whole  of  the 
Lycaonian  tetrarchy  ;  ^  but  apparently  he  did  permanently 
attach  to  it  the  northern  part  of  the  tetrarchy,  including 
the  country  immediately  to  the  west  of  Lake  Tatta,  but 
not  (if  Ptolemy  may  be  followed)  including  Savatra.     This 


1  See  below,  p.  106. 
(95) 


96  Historical  Introduction. 

district  retained  the  name  of  the  "  Added  Land,"  ^  and  is  so 
described  by  Ptolemy  in  the  second  century  after  Christ  In 
this  way  the  "  Added  Land  "  came  to  be  smaller  than  the 
old  tetrarchy,  which  Pliny  describes  (see  p.  64  f.). 

It  may  seem  a  poor  return  to  the  Galatae  for  their 
services  in  the  Mithridatic  Wars,  to  deprive  them  of  the 
best  part  of  the  tetrarchy ;  but  there  may  have  been 
compensation  given  them,  as  for  example,  we  know  that 
Deiotaros  received  Armenia  Minor  from  Pompey,  and 
Brogitaros  got  Mithridation  (which  previously  had  be- 
longed to  Pontus). 

The  tetrarchies  now  disappeared  finally  from  the 
political  geography  of  Asia  Minor ;  and,  when  Pliny 
speaks  of  the  Lycaonian  Tetrarchy  given  to  Galatia,  he 
must  be  quoting  the  name  from  an  authority  speaking  of 
the  period  before  the  Mithridatic  Wars.  The  name  might 
last,  as  other  historical  names  lasted.^  The  term  tetrarchy 
now  lost  its  meaning.  There  were  three  chiefs,  one  for 
each  tribe,  and  each  was  called  a  tetrarch ;  so  that  the 
term  tetrarchy  could  henceforth  denote  only  the  territory 
of  a  tetrarch,  i.e.,  of  a  whole  tribe.  As  there  is  no  trace 
of  such  usage,  probably  the  tetrarchies  ceased  to  be  a 
political  fact  in  64. 

This  corroborates  our  previous  conclusion  that  the 
Lycaonian  Tetrarchy  was  attached  to  Galatia  during  the 
second  century. 

The  history  of  North  Galatia  during  the  period  64-40 

^  irpoaeiKrjfifievr]  (x^ypa). 

2  Pontus  Polemoniacus  lasted  as  a  name  in  inscriptions  long  after 
it  ceased  in  a.d.  63  to  be  a  political  reality.  Lycaonia  Antiochiana 
ceased  to  be  a  real  division  in  a.d.  72,  but  an  inscription  dating  later 
than  A.D.  166  uses  the  name.     Ptolemy  employs  both  these  names. 


Section  lo :  Galatia  as  a  Roman  Client  State.     97 

has  its  centre  in  the  ambition,  prudence  and  craft  of 
Deiotaros,  He  had  been  appointed  by  Pompey  chief 
and  tetrarch  of  the  Tolistobogii,  as  Brogitaros  was  of  the 
Trocmi,  and  an  unknown  person  ^  of  the  Tectosages.  In 
reward  for  his  services  to  Rome,  Pompey  also  added  to 
Deiotaros's  realm  Gazelonitis  and  part  of  Armenia  Minor.^ 
Thus  the  dominions  of  Deiotaros  lay  both  to  east  and  to 
west  of  the  other  two  Galatian  chiefs,  and  were  much  more 
extensive.  His  influence  was  strengthened  by  his  being 
far  more  distinguished  than  the  other  two  chiefs ;  and 
he  augmented  it  by  marrying  two  of  his  daughters  to 
Brogitaros^  and  to  Kastor,  son  of  the  chief  of  the 
Tectosages.  He  had  succeeded  his  father  [Dumjnorix  as 
one  of  the  four  Tolistobogian  tetrarchs.  He  was,  appar- 
ently, among  the  three  tetrarchs  who  escaped  the  massacre 
by  Mithridates  about  87.  He  served  Sulla,  87-84,  Murena, 
84-82,  Servilius  Isauricus,  78-76,  Lucullus,  74-66,  Pompey, 
66-64,  Bibulus,  51,  and  Cicero,  50 ;  and  he  was  honourably 
mentioned  by  all  of  them. 

Deiotaros  was  a  remarkable  man,  and  evidently  had 
strongly  impressed  Cicero,  who  saw  a  good  deal  of  him 
in  his  Cicilian  pro-consulate  51-50.  He  perceived  that  the 
best  career  for  a  king  in  Galatia  lay  in  faithful  adherence  to 
the  Roman  cause  ;  and  he  earned  frequent  commendation 

^  He  was  father  of  Kastor  and  Domnilaos,  see  below,  p.  loo. 
Now,  Bepolitanus  was  one  of  the  chiefs  who  escaped  the  Mithridatic 
massacre,  Plutarch,  de  Mul.  Virt.,  46.     Only  three  escaped. 

'^  As  Pompey's  acts  were  confirmed  by  the  Senate  in  59,  this 
kingdom  is  often  said  to  have  been  given  by  the  Senate.  Gazelonitis 
lay  immediately  east  of  the  Halys  in  its  lower  course. 

3  Cicero,  de  Harusp.  Resp.,  13,  29,  which  cannot  be  taken  in  the 
sense  advocated  by  Monsieur  Th.  Reinach,  Rev.  Numism.,  1891,  p. 
384  note. 

7 


^B  Historical  Introduction, 

from  the  Senate  by  his  zeal.  He  led  his  troops,  thirty 
cohorts,  12,000  men,  armed  in  Roman  style,  in  Cicero's 
army.  He  discussed  topics  of  comparative  religion  and 
ritual  with  Cicero.  He  appreciated  and  imitated  the 
Roman  discipline  and  arms ;  ^  and,  undoubtedly,  he 
carried  his  imitation  into  other  departments  than  war. 
The  Gauls  had  always  despised  agriculture,  and  eaten  the 
bread  cultivated  by  others ;  ^  but  Deiotaros  managed  his 
estates  well,  practising  agriculture  as  well  as  pasturage — 
a  great  merit  in  the  Roman  eyes. 

Naturally  in  48  he  joined  Pompey  against  Caesar. 
Pompey  was  actual  master  in  the  East ;  and  loomed  far 
greater  in  the  Galatian  view  than  Caesar.  Deiotaros  led 
his  own  troops  to  Epirus,  though  he  was  now  very  old,^ 
and  had  to  be  lifted  on  to  his  horse.  We  need  not  credit 
Deiotaros  with  any  motives  of  gratitude  to  Pompey :  he 
was  too  ambitious  to  have  room  for  the  kindlier  and 
weaker  emotion.  He  was  ready  immediately  afterwards 
to  co-operate  with  Caesar's  lieutenant  Calvinus,  and  with 
Caesar  himself.  It  was  for  the  Romans  to  settle  their  own 
affairs:  he  acted  along  with  the  nearest  officer  or  the 
strongest. 

Pompey  had  not  given  the  three  Galatian  chiefs  the 
title  of  king,  but  only  of  tetrarch,  though  he  had  made 
Deiotaros  king  of  Lesser  Armenia.  In  58  P.  Clodius 
passed  a   law  through  the  comitia  tributa,   granting   the 

1  He  had  two  legions  for  several  years  before  B.C.  48.  But  he 
suffered  severely  at  Nikopolis,  and  brought  only  one  legion  to  Caesar 
in  47. 

*  See  above,  p.  78. 

"  Plutarch,  Crass.,  17,  calls  him  in  b.c.  54  a  very  old  man,  itaw 
yrjpaiov. 


Section  lo :  Galatia  as  a  Roman  Client  State.     99 

higher  title  to  Deiotaros  and  Brogitaros.  Cicero  says  that 
the  Senate  had  often  declared  Deiotaros  worthy  of  the 
kingly  title ;  but  Brogitaros  had  merely  bought  it  from 
Clodius  without  desert.  At  the  same  time  Brogitaros 
induced  Clodius  to  pass  a  law  ejecting  the  high  priest  of 
Pessinus  and  putting  Brogitaros  in  his  place.  As  Pessinus 
was  in  the  realm  of  Deiotaros,  this  was  an  interference 
with  his  rights,  and  caused  enmity  between  him  and  the 
usurping  priest.  Within  the  course  of  the  next  year  or 
two,  Deiotaros  ejected  his  son-in-law  Brogitaros,  and  re- 
covered possession  of  Pessinus.^ 

Cicero's  words  might  perhaps  imply  that  the  rightful  high 
priest,  ejected  by  Brogitaros  and  restored  by  Deiotaros, 
belonged  to  the  old  native  priestly  family  ;  but  it  is  far 
from  probable  that  Cicero  knew  anything  of  such  delicate 
distinctions,  and  his  words  cannot  be  pressed. 

Brogitaros  died,  or  was  killed  perhaps  by  Deiotaros, 
some  time  between  56  and  51  ;  for  in  47  we  learn  that 
Deiotaros  had  seized  several  years  ago  the  country  of  the 
Trocmi,  thus  reducing  the  number  of  chiefs  from  three  to 
two. 

It  is  probable  that  some  shadow  of  the  old  common 
council  and  festival  at  Drynemeton  still  existed  at  this 
period.  Something  like  common  determination  and  plan 
among  all  the  tribes  is  clearly  shown  during  the  Mithri- 
datic  Wars  and  again  in  the  Roman  Civil  War,  for  the 
contingent  sent  to  aid  Pompey  was  evidently  fixed  at 
300  cavalry  from  each  tribe.  Deiotaros,  as  chief  of  two 
tribes,  led  600  horsemen.  Kastor  and  Domnilaos  led  300  : 
they  were  therefore  joint  chiefs  of  the  Tectosages. 

^Cicero, ^.  Sc%t.,  26,  dc  Harusp.  Resp.,  13,  28  f. 


lOO  Historical  Introduction. 

Now  we  observe  that  Kastor's  seat  was  Gorbeous,  whereas 
Ancyra  was  indubitably  always  the  capital  of  the  Tecto- 
sages.  The  inference  seems  clear  that  Kastor  Saokondaros 
(of  Gorbeous)  and  Domnilaos^  (of  Ancyra)  were  the  two 
sons  of  the  Tectosagan  tetrarch  appointed  by  Pompey  in 
64,  and  hence  they  jointly  commanded  the  troops  of  their 
tribe. 

Further,  as  Deiotaros  was  ruler  of  almost  all  Galatia  in 

47,  he  evidently  seized  the  land  of  Domnilaos  in  the  end  of 

48,  presumably  because  Domnilaos  was  killed  at  Pharsalos. 
Deiotaros  was  then  actively  aiding  Calvinus,  Caesar's  lieu- 
tenant, on  the  eve  of  a  serious  war  ;  and  his  usurpation  was 
easily  pardoned.  Thus  in  47,  Deiotaros  and  his  son-in-law 
Kastor  were  the  sole  remaining  Galatian  chiefs.  The  latter 
had  only  a  small  territory  and  inferior  title,  whereas  Deio- 
taros and  his  son,  who  was  also  called  Deiotaros,  had 
both  been  honoured  with  the  title  king  by  the  Senate. 
Kastor  seems  to  have  felt  his  position  dangerous,  and  he 
employed  his  son  Kastor  to  bring  an  accusation  in  Rome 
against  Deiotaros  for  attempting  to  poison  Caesar.  Thus  a 
bitter  enmity  arose  between  Deiotaros  and  his  son-in-law, 
which  had  lasted  for  some  time  before  45. 

In  47  Deiotaros  appeared  as  a  suppliant  before  Caesar 
on  the  Pontic  frontier.  He  brought  a  legion  with  him  to 
the  impending  Pontic  War ;  and  Caesar  restored  his  royal 
robes,^  and  used  his  services  in  the  war.     Other  claimants 

^  Called  Domnekleios,  Strab.,  p.  543,  if  the  two  are  rightly  identified 
by  Niese,  Rhein.  Mus.,  1883,  p.  567  ff.,  and  Th.  Reinach,  Rev.  Numism., 
1 891,  p.  380  ff. 

2  Caesar  recognised  only  tetrarchs  in  Galatia,  but  acknowledged 
Deiotaros's  title  as  king  of  Armenia  (this  had  been  granted  by  the 
Senate  in  his  consulship,  when  it  had  confirmed  Pompey's  acts  in  the 
East). 


Section  lo  :  Galatia  as  a  Roman  Client  State.      loi 

were  contesting  his  rights ;  possibly  Brogitaros  had  left 
sons,  certainly  Domnilaos  had  two  sons,  Adiatorix  and 
Dyteutos.  Caesar  postponed  consideration  of  some  of  these 
questions  to  a  more  convenient  opportunity  ;  but  punished 
Deiotaros  by  giving  part  of  his  Armenian  kingdom  to  Ario- 
barzanes  of  Cappadocia,  and  the  whole  of  his  Trocmian 
tetrarchy  to  Mithridates  of  Pergamos,  Caesar's  active  and 
able  supporter.  The  mother  of  Mithridates  was  Adobo- 
giona  of  the  Trocmian  tetrarchs,  daughter  of  another 
Deiotaros  and  sister  of  Brogitaros.  His  father  was  believed 
to  be  really  Mithridates  the  Great,  though  a  citizen  of 
Pergamos  was  husband  of  Adobogiona. 

In  45  the  younger  Kastor  was  in  Rome  prosecuting  the 
case  against  his  grandfather  Deiotaros  ;  and  Cicero  defended 
the  latter.  Caesar  again  postponed  his  decision ;  and  nothing 
was  settled  when  he  died.  Immediately  on  hearing  of 
Caesar's  murder  in  44  B.C.,  Deiotaros  seized  all  his  former 
realm.  He  captured  Gorbeous,  and  put  to  death  his  own 
daughter  and  her  husband  Kastor  Saokondaros.  The  elder 
Kastor  was  still  living  in  45,  when  Cicero  was  pleading  the 
case  in  Rome  ;  but  Deiotaros  took  advantage  of  the  disorder 
ensuing  on  Caesar's  death,  to  push  his  own  claim  to  all  three 
tetrarchies,  A  bribe  to  Antony  and  his  wife  Fulvia  ensured 
him  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  power  until  his  death  in  B.C.  41. 
Thus  the  number  of  Galatian  chiefs  was  reduced  to  one. 

In  order  to  ensure  the  peaceable  succession  of  one  of  his 
sons,  Deiotaros  is  said  by  Plutarch  to  have  put  all  the  rest 
to  death.  But,  in  spite  of  his  care,  Antony  conferred  the 
kingdom  of  Galatia  with  the  eastern  part  of  Paphlagonia  on 
Kastor  in  40.  Perhaps  his  son  Deiotaros  died  before  him 
or  shortly  after. 

The  monarchic  system  must  have  tended  to  weaken  the 


I02  Historical  hitroduction. 

tribal  feeling  and  the  old  free  Gaulish  character.  The 
monarch  in  the  maintenance  of  his  authority  was  apt  to 
introduce  the  administrative  devices  of  more  advanced 
nations.  Deiotaros,  who  armed  and  trained  his  soldiers  in 
Roman  style,  was  fully  alive  to  the  advantages  of  "  civilised  " 
methods.  But  the  monarchical  system  lasted  barely  twenty 
years  ;  and  no  serious  and  permanent  effect  on  national 
feeling  could  have  been  produced  before  Galatia  became  a 
Roman  Province  in  B.C.  25,  for  the  tribal  system  continued 
in  full  force  under  the  Empire. 

The  preceding  and  following  Sections  show  how  largely 
Galatia  now  bulked  in  the  Roman  mind.  As  in  the  second 
century  the  eastern  question  was  summed  up  in  the  word 
"  Asia,"  so  now  the  Central  Asia  Minor  problem  was 
summed  up  in  the  word  "  Galatia  ".  In  each  case,  when 
a  regular  Province  was  constituted,  the  new  name  was 
given  to  it. 

iVo/e.— Additional  Authorities  (see  p.  52). 
Th.  Reinach  in  Revue  Numismatique  (1891),  p.  378  ff. 
Niese  in  Rheinisches  Museum  (1883),  p.  583  ff. 


SECTION   II. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  PROVINCE  GALATIA. 

The  Roman  range  of  authority  and  action  in  any  foreign 
land  constituted  a  Provincia,  i.e.,  a  sphere  of  duty.^  In  the 
early  part  of  the  first  century  B.C.  Asia  Minor  contained 
two  Provinciae,  Asia  and  Cilicia,  the  latter  being  the 
Roman  term  for  a  great,  ill -defined,  half-subdued  agglom- 
eration of  lands,  comprising  parts  of  Cilicia,  Pamphylia 
and  other  regions.  In  80  we  begin  to  get  a  conception  of 
the  range  of  this  new  Provincia,  in  which  the  Roman 
interests  in  southern  and  south-eastern  Asia  Minor  were 
contained.  Dolabella  and  his  proquaestor  Verres  governed 
it  (80-79) ;  ^"^^  Cicero's  speech  against  the  latter  gives  some 
conception  of  the  range  of  his  authority,  including  parts  of 
Lycia,  Milyas,  Phrygia,  Pamphylia  and  Pisidia,  as  well  as 
Cilicia.^  Servilius  Isauricus  succeeded  and  governed  Cilicia 
78-75.  The  first  and  most  pressing  duty  of  the  Provincia 
was  to  put  down  the  pirates  of  Isauria  or  Cilicia  Tracheia. 

^  The  word  provincia  had  originally  no  territorial  implication  : 
the  decision  of  law-cases  between  cives  and  strangers  was  the  pro- 
vincia of  one  of  the  praetors. 

"^Verr.,  II  I  38,  95,  where  the  word  totam  is  rhetorical:  it  is  to 
be  connected  with  all  the  preceding  list  of  names  (and  not  simply 
with  Phrygian) ;  Verres  plagued  all  Lycia,  Pamphylia,  Phrygia,  etc. 
No  stress  can  be  laid  on  it  as  proving  that  entire  Phrygia  was  under 
Polabella  ;  it  is  a  stroke  of  rhetoric. 

(103) 


I04  Historical  Introduction. 

Servilius  did  so  to  some  extent,  and  was  the  first  Roman 
officer  to  lead  an  army  across  Mount  Taurus.  For  the 
efficient  conduct  of  operations  it  was  necessary  to  have 
the  countries  on  both  sides  of  Taurus  under  his  command, 
and  in  fact  part  of  Phrygia  as  well  as  Pamphylia,  Lycia, 
etc.,  obeyed  him. 

Asia  had  been  sufficiently  and  finally  regulated  by  Sulla 
in  B.C.  85-84 ;  but  the  new  Province  Cilicia  was  open  to 
continual  variation  according  as  the  frontier  interests  of 
Rome  varied,  and  for  many  years  the  history  of  Roman 
conquest  and  foreign  policy  in  the  East  was  practically 
identical  with  the  Cilician  sphere  of  duty. 

To  understand  the  subject  before  us,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  there  were  three  classes  of  States  in  Asia  Minor : 
(i)  Countries  incorporated  in  the  Empire,  in  which  law 
was  administered  by  a  Roman  governor;  (2)  Countries 
connected  with  Rome  by  an  agreement  or  alliance  the 
terms  of  which  were  expressed  in  a  treaty,  i.e.^  client-states, 
according  to  the  usual  and  convenient  expression,  among 
which  the  chief  were  Galatia  and  Cappadocia ;  (3)  States 
in  no  formal  and  recognised  relations  with  Rome,  especially 
Pontus  and  the  Isaurian  pirates. 

The  first  two  classes  were  included  in  the  conception  of 
the  Roman  world,^  the  third  were  its  enemies.^ 

Strabo  on  p.  671  describes  the  intention^  of  the  Romans 
in  setting  up  these  subject  kings.  He  is  speaking  of 
Cilicia  Tracheia,  but  he  expresses  the  Roman  theory  as 

^  See  Christ  Born  in  Bethlehem,  p.  117  ff. 

^No  international  law  was  recognised  then,  except  in  so  far  as  it 
was  expressed  in  a  formal  treaty. 

^  This  paragraph  is  taken  verbatim  from  Christ  Born  in  Bethlehem, 

p.  132. 


Section  ii :  Origin  of  the  Province  Galatia.     105 

it  was  applied  generally.  Some  of  the  subject  countries 
were  specially  difficult  to  govern,  either  on  account  of  the 
unruly  character  of  the  inhabitants,  or  because  the  natural 
features  of  the  land  lent  themselves  readily  to  brigandage 
and  piracy.  As  these  countries  must  be  either  administered 
by  Roman  governors  or  ruled  by  kings,  it  was  considered 
that  kings  would  more  efficiently  control  their  restless  sub- 
jects, being  permanently  on  the  spot  and  having  soldiers 
always  at  command.  But  the  history  of  the  following 
century  shows  how,  step  by  step  and  district  by  district, 
these  countries  were  incorporated  in  the  adjacent  Roman 
Provinces,  as  a  certain  degree  of  discipline  and  civilisation 
was  imparted  to  the  population  by  the  kings,  who  built 
cities  and  introduced  the  Graeco-Roman  customs  and 
education. 

The  Eastern  frontier  policy  of  Rome  at  this  time  was 
expressed  in  the  Cilician  sphere  of  duty  or  Provincia.  Every 
change  in  the  relations  of  Rome  to  its  enemies  in  Asia 
Minor  implied  a  change  in  the  bounds  of  that  Provincia. 
Every  officer  sent  to  regulate  the  foreign  policy,  i.e.,  the 
relations  with  the  enemies  of  Rome,  was  officially  governor 
of  Cilicia. 

Lycaonia  had  been  divided  between  the  two  chief  client- 
states,  Galatia  and  Cappadocia  ;  ^  but  when  these  states 
were  fighting  for  existence  against  Pontus,  their  authority 
was  necessarily  relaxed  in  Lycaonia.  From  80  to  75  we 
see  that  it  was  connected  with  Cilicia,  and  doubtless  the 
same  arrangement  lasted  until  the  end  of  the  Mithridatic 
Wars,  though  in  practice  temporary  conquests  by  the  enemy, 
e.g.,  by  Eumachos  in  74,  might  interfere  with  the  connection 
for  a  time. 

^  See  p.  64  f. 


io6  Historical  Introduction. 

Pisidic  Phrygia^  (including  Pisidian  Antioch)  certainly 
was  added.  Philomelium  and  most  of  Phrygian  Paroreios, 
with  Iconium  and  the  west  of  Lycaonia,  formed  the  Lyca- 
onian  Dioecesis,^  as  part  of  the  Cilician  Province. 

Now  as  to  the  fate  of  Lycaonia  when  the  readjust- 
ment of  Provinciae  occurred  after  the  Mithridatic  Wars  : 
in  B.C.  64  Pompey  gave  the  eastern  part  of  the  former 
Eleventh  Strategia  to  Cappadocia.  This  part  extended 
from  Kastabala  to  Kybistra,  and  the  frontier  lay  a  little 
to  the  west  of  Kybistra,  for  Cicero  marching  from  near 
Iconium  on  2nd  September,  B.C.  51,  was  on  the  frontier 
between  Lycaonia  and  Cappadocia  on  i8th  September, 
and  reached  Kybistra  on  19th  or  20th  September.^  This 
would  not  be  possible  if  the  frontier  extended  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  Derbe,  as  it  probably  did  in  the  original 
Strategia.  Moreover,  Derbe  and  Laranda  were  under  the 
administration  of  Antipater,  who  afterwards  entertained 
Cicero  during  his  Anatolian  journeys.  Antipater  was  under 
the  authority  of  the  Roman  governor  of  Cilicia  ;  *  and 
therefore  this  part  of  Lycaonia  must  have  been  under  the 
Cilician  Provincia  or  sphere  of  duty. 

'  Pisidic  Phrygia,  Polyb.,  XXII  5,  14  (where  it  is  misunderstood  by 
most  modern  writers),  is  practically  identical  with  Galatic  Phrygia, 
a  later  name  meaning  the  part  of  Phrygia  included  in  the  Province 
Galatia.  It  was  the  part  of  Phrygia  towards  Pisidia  (Strab.,  pp.  557, 
569,  577,  Ptolemy,  V  5,  4).     See  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  316. 

2  Cicero,  Alt.,  V  21,  9,  more  fully  defined  in  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.,  V  25, 
as  Lycaonia  in  Asiaticam  lurisdictionem  versa,  and  distinguished  from 
the  three  Phrygian  Dioeceses  by  Cicero,  Fam.,  XIII  67.  The  boundary' 
between  the  Phrygian  and  Lycaonian  Dioeceses  lay  between  the 
Lakes  of  Ak-Sheher  (XL  Martyrs)  and  Eber  Gol. 

^  He  started  from  Iconium  on  29th  August,  but  returned  to  it  on 
the  following  day.     Schmidt,  Briefwechsd  des  Cicero,  pp.  80  f.,  397. 

''Cicero,  Fam.,  XIII  73. 


Section  ii:   Origin  of  the  Province  Galatia.     107 

Justin  defines  the  territory  added  to  Cappadocia  in  129 
{i.e.,  the  Eleventh  Strategia  in  its  former  condition)  as 
"  Lycaonia  and  Cilicia  "  {i.e.,  part  of  the  two  countries)  ;  but 
Appian  describes  it  in  64  as  "  part  of  Cilicia,  viz.,  Kastabala 
and  other  cities  "  ;  ^  we  now  see  the  reason  of  this  difference. 

Evidently  Phrygia  Paroreios  continued  as  before,  with 
its  chief  city  Philomelium,  to  form  part  of  the  Cilician 
Province,  for  the  same  reason  of  convenience  as  before 
under  Servilius  Isauricus, 

It  is  strange  that  Kybistra  and  along  with  it  perhaps 
the  pass  leading  down  to  the  Cilician  Gates  was  permitted 
to  remain  part  of  Cappadocia,  for  it  was  regularly  traversed 
by  the  Cilician  governor  when  he  crossed  into  Campestris 
Cilicia ;  but  Cicero  calls  it  Cappadocian,  though  he  had 
his  army  encamped  there.  The  Cappadocian  king  was 
apparently  found  so  submissive  that  his  nominal  rule  over 
Kybistra  was  no  inconvenience. 

From  56  to  50  three  Dioeceses  of  Asia,  Laodiceia  or 
Cibyra,  Apameia,  and  Synnada,  were  attached  to  the 
Cilician  Province.^  The  reason  was  evidently  convenience. 
The  governor,  landing  at  Ephesus,  could  conveniently  hold 
the  assizes  in  those  three  cities,  as  he  went  along  the  great 
highway  to  the  East,  which  passed  through  them  as  well 
as  through  Philomelium  and  Iconium.  This  arrangement 
shows  the  paramount  importance  of  the  Province.  Cilicia 
was  governed  by  consular,  while  Asia  was  usually  admin- 
istered by  praetorian  officers  at  this  time. 

It  was  the  governor  of  Cilicia,  not  the  governor  of  Asia, 
who  was  brought  into  close  relations  with  Galatia  during 

^  Justin,  XXXVII  I  :  he  merely  epitomises  Pompeius  Trogus,  and 
the  spirit  evaporates  in  an  epitome.     Appian,  MtfAr.,  105. 
"^  They  were  Asian,  demonstrably,  62-56  and  49-46. 


io8  Historical  Introduction. 

this  period,  as  we  see  from  Cicero's  language  about  Deio- 
taros. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  the  importance  of  the 
Cilician  Provincia  was  at  an  end.  Asia,  as  being  nearer 
the  seat  of  war,  resumed  its  ancient  importance.  There 
was  no  leisure  to  think  of  foreign  relations  for  many  years. 
The  bounds  of  Rome  in  these  regions  shrank.  Lands 
which  had  been  enrolled  in  a  province  were  even  given 
over  to  dependent  or  client  princes,  implying  that  the  over- 
burdened empire  was  no  longer  fit  to  maintain  order  in 
these  outlying  districts. 

In  these  circumstances  the  three  Phrygian  Dioeceses, 
Laodiceia,  Apameia,  and  Synnada,  were  restored  to  Asia  ;  ^ 
and  this  arrangement  continued  in  force  from  50  onwards. 
But  the  Philomelian  Dioecesis  was,  as  before,  attached  to 
Cilicia  along  with  the  intermediate  regions,  Lycaonia  and 
Pisidic  Phrygia.  Thus,  about  46  to  44,  Cicero  was  beg- 
ging the  officials  of  Cilicia,  Philippus  and  Gallus,  to  attend 
to  the  affairs  of  his  friend  Egnatius,  which  his  agent  L. 
Oppius  at  Philomelium  found  difficulty  in  managing.^  The 
Philomelian  assizes  are  called  forum  Lycaonium  by  Cicero, 
and  Pliny  mentions  that  part  of  Lycaonia  was  in  the  same 
conventus  with  Philomelium.^ 

The  troubled  period  of  the  Civil  Wars  seems  to  have 

1  Cicero,  Fam.,  XIII  67,  says  pointedly  that  the  three  Asiatic 
Dioeceses  were  thus  shifted  about,  showing  that  the  Philomelian  or 
Lycaonian  Dioecesis  was  treated  separately. 

2  Cicero,  Fam.,  XIII  43,  44,  73,  74.  At  the  same  time  Cicero  wrote 
to  Appuleius,  proquaestor  in  Asia,  asking  him  to  attend  to  Egnatius's 
affairs  in  that  province,  which  were  managed  by  his  slave  Anchialos, 
Fam.,  XIII  45. 

^  Cicero,  Att.,  V  21,  9.  Lycaonia  .  .  .  cum  qua  conveniunt  Philomeli- 
cnses,  Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  V  25. 


Section  ii:  Origin  of  the  Province  Galatia.     109 

stirred  up  Antipater  of  Derbe  to  shake  off  the  Roman 
authority;  already  under  Philippus  he  had  been  on  bad 
relations  with  his  superior,  and  that  governor  had  taken 
his  children  as  hostages  for  his  good  conduct.^  Cicero 
wrote  to  Philippus  interceding  on  behalf  of  Antipater,  who 
had  formerly  entertained  him  in  some  of  his  progresses 
through  the  Cilician  Province,  51-50.  Afterwards  matters 
became  worse,  and  Antipater  became  an  open  enemy  of 
Rome,  which  Strabo  expresses  when  he  calls  him  a  brigand. 

In  B.C.  40,  when  Antony  came  to  regulate  the  eastern 
half  of  the  empire,  which  had  been  placed  under  his  care, 
he  gave  to  Amyntas,  secretary  of  the  late  Deiotaros,  a 
new  kingdom,  comprising  Pisidic  Phrygia  and  Pisidia 
generally.  Great  part  of  Pisidia  was  still  practically  in- 
dependent, so  that  Amyntas's  duty  really  was  to  preserve 
order  in  this  mountainous  and  disturbed  region.  Pisidian 
Antioch  must  have  been  his  capital,  and  from  this  time 
onwards  that  city  began  to  be  important  in  the  eastern 
Roman  world.  Amyntas,  like  the  other  client  kings  of 
this  period,  was  a  sort  of  chief  constable  for  Rome  ;  a 
Roman  army  could  not  be  spared  for  this  district,  and  the 
king  was  free  to  construct  an  army  of  his  own,  and  keep 
the  country  quiet  as  best  he  could. 

A  similar  kingdom  was  at  the  same  time  constructed 
further  east.  Part  of  Lycaonia  and  Isauria  and  Cilicia 
Tracheia^  was  entrusted  to  Polemon  of  Laodiceia,  an  able 
man,   who   henceforth  played   an    important   part   in    the 

1  Perhaps  the  children  of  Antipater  were  permanently  retained  as 
hostages  by  the  provincial  government;  but  Philippus  seems  to  have 
had  them  in  his  power  after  he  left  his  province,  Cicero,  Fam.,  XIII 

74- 

2  Appian,  Bell.  Civ.,  V  75  ;  cp.  Strabo,  pp.  569,  577. 


no  Historical  Introduction. 

eastern  Roman  world.  Polemon  was  entrusted  on  the 
Cilician  frontier  with  the  same  task  as  Amyntas  on  the 
Phrygian  frontier.  Iconium  was  probably  Polemon's  capi- 
tal.^ How  much  of  Cilicia  Tracheia  was  given  to  Polemon 
is  uncertain,  and  probably  was  uncertain  even  to  Antony 
and  to  Polemon.  The  country  had  only  been  very  im- 
perfectly subdued  ;  many  of  the  tribes  had  never  seen  a 
Roman  soldier  or  official,  and  were  completely  ignorant  of 
Roman  ways.  Polemon  evidently  was  left  to  do  the  best 
he  could  in  his  difficult  and  ill-defined  realm. 

Both  these  kingdoms  are  mere  scraps  out  of  the  vast 
Cilician  Province.  Rome  had  abandoned  for  the  time  her 
duties  in  this  region  ;  the  Cilician  Province  shrank  into 
insignificance  ;  and  new  kings  were  permitted  to  rule  parts 
even  of  Campestris  Cilicia. 

Polemon  had  an  interesting  and  remarkable  career,  the 
vicissitudes  of  which  throw  light  on  the  confused  state  of 
inner  Asia  Minor  at  this  time.  He  was  the  son  of  Zeno, 
a  rhetorician  of  Laodiceia,  the  great  Phrygian  city  on  the 
Lycus,  who  had  led  the  successful  resistance  to  the  Par- 
thian inroad  in  B.C.  40.  In  reward  for  Zeno's  services  on 
this  occasion  his  son  was  promoted  successively  to  the 
kingdoms  of  Cilicia  Tracheia  and  of  Pontus,  Armenia, 
and  Bosphorus.  Though  he  did  not,  like  Amyntas  and 
Deiotaros  of  Paphlagonia,  desert  his  first  patron  Antony 
before  Actium,  he  was  taken  into  favour  by  Augustus,  and 
passed  a  long  and  successful  life  in  the  Roman  alliance. 
He  married  Pythodoris,  a  rich  lady  of  Tralles  in  Lydia, 
whose  mother  was  Antonia,  daughter  of  the  triumvir. 
Thus  the   Roman  rank  and   the  name  of  Antonius  was 

1  Strabo,  p.  568. 


Section  ii :  Origin  of  the  Province  Galatia.     1 1 1 

bequeathed  to  the  sons  of  Polemon,  though  he  was  only 
a  Greek  ;  and  his  daughter,  Tryphaina,  played  a  part  in 
Pauline  semi-historical  legend.^ 

These  and  other  kings,  such  as  Herod  in  Samaria  and 
Idumaea,  Kastor  in  Galatia,  had  all  to  pay  a  fixed  tribute. 

In  36  there  was  a  fresh  shuffle  of  the  cards  and  the  kings. 
Kastor  died,  and  his  Galatian  realm  was  given  to  Amyn^ 
tas,  while  his  Paphlagonian  dominions  were  left  to  his 
brother  Deiotaros.  Amyntas  retained  his  Phrygo-Pisidian 
sovereignty  ;  and,  if  his  enlarged  realm  was  to  be  easily 
manageable,  evidently  either  part  of  the  province  Asia,  or 
else  Iconium  and  the  old  Lycaonian  Tetrarchy,  must  be 
given  to  him,  so  that  Galatia  might  be  joined  to  Pisidia. 
The  latter  course  was  taken,  and  Polemon  lost  Iconium 
and  Lycaonia.  At  the  same  time  his  Cilician  dominion 
was  transferred  to  Cleopatra,  and  he  was  made  king  of 
Pontus,  to  which  was  added  Armenia  Minor  in  35  as  a 
reward  for  his  services  in  the  Parthian  War. 

A  great  Asiatic  kingdom  was  now  constructed  for 
Antony's  favoured  Cleopatra  ;  ^  and  a  Cleopatran  era 
was  instituted  of  which  the  year  i  was  reckoned  to  end 
on  31st  August,  B.C.  36.  These  changes  were  therefore 
made  during  the  earlier  months  of  that  year. 

The  kingdoms  of  Amyntas  and  Polemon  could  be  justi- 
fied as  attempts  to  provide  a  substitute  for  Roman  rule 
amid  its  present  difficulties.  Antony  did  not  desire  to 
occupy  his  soldiers  on  the  east  in  case  of  trouble  from  his 
western  rival,  Augustus.  But  the  kingdom  of  Cleopatra 
was  merely  the  result  of  Antony's  infatuation. 

Amyntas  did  not  neglect  the  arts  of  peace.     He  had 

^  See  the  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  ch.  XVI. 
"  See  Kromayer  in  Hermes,  1894,  p.  574  f. 


TI2  Historical  Introduction. 

vast  flocks  of  sheep  in  the  great  plains  that  extend  between 
Iconium,  North  Galatia  and  Lake  Tatta. 

Preparations  for  the  final  struggle  between  Antony  and 
Augustus  interfered  with  the  progress  of  affairs  on  the 
plateau  of  Asia  Minor.  Amyntas  and  Polemon  both 
served  at  Actium  under  their  lord,  Antony.  But  both 
were  pardoned  and  confirmed  in  their  power  by  Augustus, 
who  doubtless  recognised  their  ability  and  their  readiness 
to  serve  him  as  well  as  they  had  served  Antony.  Augustus 
even  gave  to  Amyntas  the  country  of  Cilicia  Tracheia, 
which  Cleopatra  had  held  since  36. 

Amyntas  was  now  entrusted  with  the  whole  task  of 
maintaining  order  on  the  south  side  of  the  plateau,  which 
at  first,  39-36,  had  been  shared  with  Polemon.  He  was 
to  keep  the  peace  among  the  mountaineers  of  Taurus, 
who  were  accustomed  to  raid  the  more  fertile  lands  north 
of  the  mountains.  Pamphylia  had  been  added  in  36  to  his 
dominions,  so  that  he  had  the  mountains  between  his 
hands  and  was  able  to  attack  from  either  side.  He 
vigorously  set  about  his  task  of  introducing  the  Roman 
peace  into  the  mountains  by  the  Roman  method  of  war, 
and  overcame  Antipater,  the  lord  of  Derbe  and  Laranda, 
who  seems  to  have  set  up  as  an  opposition  prince. 

He  was,  however,  killed  in  B.C.  25  during  a  war  with  the 
Homonades,  a  powerful  tribe  who  inhabited  the  mountains 
west  of  Isaura,  around  lake  Trogitis  (Seidi-Sheher-lake). 

Augustus,  thereupon,  resolved  to  take  into  the  Empire 
great  part  of  Amyntas's  kingdom,  as  being  now  sufficiently 
inured  to  Roman  methods.  He  despatched  Lollius  (to 
whom  afterwards  Horace  addressed  the  eighth  Ode  of  his 
Fourth  Book)  to  organise  the  new  Province,  which  included 
all  the  northern  and  western  part  of  the  kingdom. 


SECTION  12. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  PROVINCE  GALATIA,  b.c.  25— a.d.  50. 

The  history  of  the  Province  Galatia  is  a  difficult  and  com- 
plicated subject ;  and  the  variation  in  its  bounds  is  very 
puzzling.  It  took  the  place  which  the  Cilician  Province 
had  filled  under  the  later  Republic :  the  growth  of  the 
Roman  power  on  this  side  was  now  concentrated  in  the 
Galatic  province.  The  relations  of  the  Empire  to  the  client- 
states  of  Pontus,  Paphlagonia  and  Cilicia  Tracheia  was  part 
of  the  Galatic  sphere  of  duty.  As  those  states  were  succes- 
sively raised  to  the  Roman  standard  of  peace  and  order 
through  the  exertions,  the  personal  presence  and  the  ever- 
ready  armies  of  their  kings,  they  were  one  by  one  taken 
into  the  Empire  by  being  incorporated  in  the  Province 
Galatia.  The  history  of  that  Province  for  almost  a  century 
is  "  the  history  of  Roman  policy  in  its  gradual  advance 
towards  the  Euphrates  frontier,  a  long  slow  process,  in 
which  the  Roman  genius  was  exerted  to  the  utmost  to 
influence  and  impress,  to  educate  and  discipline,  the  popu- 
lation of  the  various  countries  taken  into  the  Province 
Galatia".^  The  foundation  of  the  Galatian  Churches  is  an 
episode  in  the  history  of  the  Province ;  and  he  that  would 
understand  the  "  Galatian  Question  "  aright  must  look  at  it 
from  that  point  of  view. 

1  Hastings,  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  II  86. 
8  (113) 


1 1 4  Historical  Introduction. 

The  complicacy  of  the  history  of  this  Province  between 
B.C.  25  and  A.D.  72  is  a  proof  of  its  importance  in  the 
Roman  policy.  It  resembles  in  that  respect  the  history 
of  Cilicia  Provincia  between  B.C.  80  and  50.  But  in  A.D. 
72  the  importance  of  Galatia  ceased  ;  and  Cappadocia  took 
its  place  as  the  centre  of  Roman  frontier  policy.  Cap- 
padocia had  been  a  Roman  Province  since  A.D.  17  ;  but 
it  was  prematurely  incorporated  before  it  was  ready  for 
strict  Roman  organisation,  and  it  was  placed  only  under  a 
procurator,  who  seems  to  have  left  the  native  organisation 
undisturbed,  and  was  probably  chiefly  concerned  to  see  that 
the  proper  taxes  were  paid. 

In  A.D.  72  Cappadocia  was  created  a  consular  Province 
with  an  army ;  and  the  Galatic  Province  sank  again  into 
comparative  insignificance,  being  included  in  a  joint  Pro- 
vince with  Cappadocia  until  about  A.D.  106,  and  thereafter 
separated  from  it. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  during  the  century  of 
its  political  importance,  the  Galatic  Province  never  con- 
tained an  army.  Its  formation  was  due  to  the  defeat  of 
the  Roman  agent,  King  Amyntas,  by  the  Homonades 
(see  p.  112);  and  Lollius,  the  first  governor,  must  have 
taken  with  him  a  body  of  troops  to  inaugurate  the 
provincial  system.  But  the  Homonades  were  left  for  a 
number  of  years  unpunished,  and  the  Pisidian  mountain- 
eers to  the  west  were  far  from  orderly  and  peaceable,  their 
raids  constituting  a  permanent  danger.  When  at  last  an 
army  was  needed,  the  Syrian  army  was  employed  ;  and  an 
imperial  legate  was  sent  on  a  special  mission  to  operate 
with  the  troops  of  the  Province  Syria-Cilicia,  though  the 
Homonades  were  far  distant  from  the  frontier  of  that 
Province,  divided  from  it  by  the  realm  of  Archelaos,  and 


Section  12 :  History  of  the  Province  Galatia.     1 15 

pressing  hard  on  the  Galatian  frontier.  An  official  speci- 
ally charged  with  this  duty  had  to  be  sent,  as  his  absence 
outside  of  the  territory  of  Syria-Cilicia  was  required  for  a 
considerable  time ;  but  his  work  was  strictly  part  of  the 
Syrian  Provincia  or  sphere  of  duty,  as  he  was  leading  the 
troops  of  that  Province.  He  was  therefore  in  the  strict 
and  legal  Roman  sense  Legatus  Augi^sti  Pro  Praetore  Pro- 
vinciae  Syriae  et  Ciliciae}  His  name  was  P.  Sulpicius 
Quirinius  ;  and  the  date  of  his  command  is  approximately 
given  by  the  simultaneous  operations  conducted  on  the 
Galatian  side,  where  a  series  of  garrisons  {Coloniae)  con- 
nected by  military  roads  with  the  military  capital,  Antioch 
in  Pisidian  Phrygia,  were  established  by  Cornutus  Aquila 
in  B.C.  6. 

Otherwise  Galatia  was  administered  without  a  standing 
army,  though  of  course  a  few  soldiers  were  needed  there 
for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  order  and  government.  The 
police-system  of  the  Empire  was  one  of  its  weakest  sides, 
so  that  soldiers  were  needed  for  police  and  for  revenue- 
officers  and  on  the  great  imperial  estates ;  also  to  act  as 
escort  and  ministers  of  the  higher  Roman  officials,  and  so 
on.  It  is  true  that  that  vast  Empire  was  administered  and 
guarded  with  an  astonishingly  small  army  ;  but,  considering 
that  Galatia  was  so  new  as  a  Province  and  so  close  to 
foreign  and  dangerous  tribes,  we  can  hardly  understand 
how   it  was   left   for  nearly  a   century  dependent  on  the 

^  This  has  been  pointed  out  in  Christ  Born  in  Beihlehem,  ch.  XI ; 
and  only  a  blindness  to  the  real  inner  nature  of  the  Roman  provin- 
cial system  could  suggest  a  doubt  whether  such  a  special  mission 
was  consistent  with  Roman  usage,  or  whether  such  a  special  officer 
would  be  styled  Legatus  Syriae  Provinciae ;  those  who  doubt  the 
second  point  are  forgetting  the  Roman  sense  of  Provincia,  and 
taking  it  in  our  territorial  sense. 


ii6  Historical  Introduction. 

distant  Syrian  army  in  the  event  of  any  disturbance,  internal 
or  external,  unless  we  take  into  account  the  character  of  the 
population  and  their  loyalty. 

The  Gaulish  tribes  were  certainly  enthusiastically  loyal. 
The  long  wars  side  by  side  with  Rome  against  Mithridates 
had  cemented  a  permanent  feeling  of  friendship,  the  most 
striking  proof  of  which  is  that  Augustus  could  take  one  of 
Deiotaros's  Roman-armed  Galatian  legions  and  turn  it  into 
a  Roman  legion,  calling  it  XXII  Deiotariana.  Other 
causes  described  in  Section  13  contributed  to  bind  them 
closely  to  Rome,  and  separate  them  from  the  Asiatic  and 
Greek  races  around  them. 

The  non-Gaulish  peoples  in  the  rest  of  the  Province  were 
kept  loyal  and  orderly  by  two  causes.  In  the  first  place, 
the  peace  and  comparatively  good  government  of  the 
Empire  made  such  a  welcome  change  from  the  almost 
ceaseless  wars  of  the  period  B.C.  334-31,  with  the  oppres- 
sion and  rapacity  accompanying  them,  that  the  rule  of 
Augustus  and  his  successors  was  welcomed  as  a  direct  gift 
from  heaven  to  wretched  war-worn  men.  In  the  second 
place,  the  temper  of  the  Asia  Minor  peoples  was  essentially 
quiet  and  obedient ;  ^  and  from  the  beginning  of  history  to 
the  present  day  it  has  always  been  an  easy  task  to  maintain 
peace  and  order  among  them.  The  people  are  always 
capable  of  being  roused  to  fanaticism  ;  but  it  requires  a 
strong  stimulus  to  excite  them;  and,  where  the  govern- 
ment prevents  such  a  stimulus  being  applied,  and  maintains 
anything  like  justice,  the  population  remains  marvellously 
quiet  and  submissive. 

In  these  circumstances  Galatia  could  safely  be  left  with- 
out a  standing  army. 

1  See  section  4  £. 


Section  12 :  History  of  the  Province  Gatatia.      1 1 7 

The  importance  attached  at  first  in  the  imperial  policy 
to  the  Galatic  Province  appears  from  a  series  of  facts,  small 
indeed  in  themselves,  but  attesting  the  continued  attention 
paid  to  it  by  the  Emperors.  In  the  obscurity  that  envelops 
this  region,  it  is  remarkable  how  many  such  small  details 
have  become  known  to  us. 

The  conquered  Homonades  were  incorporated  in  the 
Province,^  and  the  effort  to  pacify  the  southern  frontier  is 
probably  connected  with  the  foundation  of  the  Colonia 
Caesareia  Antiochia^  and  Colonia  Julia  Felix  Gemina 
Lustra,  with  four  others  towards  the  western  side  of  the 
Pisidian  frontier.  This  brought  a  considerable  Latin- 
speaking  population  to  Antioch  and  Lystra,  and  the 
municipal  government  in  both  cities  was  remodelled  after 
the  Roman  fashion.  Duoviri,  Quaestors  and  Aediles  took 
the  place  of  Strategoi  or  Archontes  ;  lictors  marched  in 
front  of  these  Roman  magistrates  ;  decuriones  were  sub- 
stituted for  the  Boule ;  the  language  used  in  the  municipal 
deeds  was  Latin  (as  we  see  in  the  inscriptions);  the  law 
administered  among  the  cives  Romani  in  the  Colonies  was 
Roman  ;  the  personal  names  became  in  large  proportion 
Roman. ^  If  we  had  as  many  names  of  Lystran  and 
Antiochian  as  we  have  of  Corinthian  converts,  we  should 
doubtless  find  quite  as  large  a  proportion  of  Roman  names 
in  the  two  Galatian  as  in  the  Grecian  Colonia.* 

This  event  was  a  marked  step  in  the  Roman isation  of 

^  See  C.  I.  L.,  Ill  6799,  in  their  territory,  dedicated  to  Afrinus, 
governor  of  Galatia  under  Claudius. 

2  It  may  possibly  have  been  founded  earlier,  being  called  Caesareia 
while  the  others  are  called  Augusta ;  but,  if  so,  it  is  likely  to  have 
been  strengthened  at  this  time. 

^  See  section  ig. 

*  See  Hastings'  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  I,  p.  480. 


1 1 8  Historical  Introduction. 

Southern  Galatia.  Neither  of  these  two  cities  had  previ- 
ously ranked  among  the  greater  cities  of  Asia  Minor  ;  and 
Lystra,  in  fact,  had  been  an  utterly  insignificant  place. 
Now  Antioch  was  a  Latin  city,  and  its  citizens  had  Latin 
rights.  Considering  what  dignity  and  practical  advantages 
lay  in  the  Roman  or  Latin  citizenship,  the  presence  in 
Antioch  of  so  large  a  proportion  of  cives  gave  it  a  position 
in  the  land  that  nothing  else  could  have  conferred  upon 
it.  Moreover,  it  was  the  military  centre  of  the  provincial 
frontier  defence  on  the  south  ;  and  it  was  all  the  more  im- 
portant because  there  was  no  army  in  the  Province,  and 
the  defence  lay  with  the  burghers  of  the  Coloniae. 

The  two  Coloniae  were  connected  by  a  "royal  road," 
an  imperial  highway,  which  is  mentioned  in  the  Acts  of 
Paul  and  Thekla,  and  which  in  an  administrative  point  of 
view  must  have  been  a  most  important  road,  until  the 
thorough  pacification  of  Pisidia,  and  the  incorporation  in 
the  Empire  of  the  whole  mountainous  country  between  the 
Provinces  Galatia  and  Cilicia  in  A.D.  72,  did  away  with  the 
need  for  frontier  defence.  Then  Lystra  sank  back  into 
comparative  insignificance,  and  the  use  of  Latin  declined, 
as  we  see  in  the  later  inscriptions. 

It  is  important  to  observe  that  the  dignity  and  rank  of 
these  cities  depended,  entirely  in  the  case  of  Lystra,  and 
mainly  in  the  case  of  Antioch,  on  their  Roman  character. 
Apart  from  that  they  were  of  little  or  no  consequence. 
With  that  they  were  more  honourable  than  their  neigh- 
bours. No  one  who  has  taken  any  interest  in  the  history 
of  Asia  Minor  at  this  period  will  doubt  that  the  Roman 
feeling  was  strong  in  these  cities.  The  mutual  rivalry  of 
the  cities  in  the  East  is  familiar  to  every  student.  They 
wrangled    for   precedence,    until   even    the    Emperor   was 


Section  12:  History  of  the  Province  Galatia.      119 

appealed  to  for  a  decision  ;  they  invented  titles  of  honour 
for  themselves  to  outshine  their  rivals  and  appropriated 
the  titles  invented  by  their  rivals.  In  Asia,  Smyrna,  Ephe- 
sus  and  Pergamos  vied  with  one  another,  in  Bithynia, 
Nikomedia  and  Nicaea,  in  Cilicia,  Tarsus  and  Anazarbos. 
In  Macedonia  a  trace  of  the  rivalry  between  Philippi  and 
Amphipolis  is  visible  in  Acts  XVI  \2}  So  in  South 
Galatia  it  may  be  taken  as  certain  that  there  was  keen 
rivalry  between  the  chief  cities.  Antioch  and  Lystra, 
strong  in  their  Roman  rank,  could  congratulate  themselves 
on  outshining  Iconium,  the  old  capital.     See  §  LIII. 

Yet  in  face  of  these  facts,  which  are  familiar  to  all  who 
have  studied  the  actual  history  of  Asia  Minor,  it  has  been 
seriously  maintained  by  some  Biblical  critics  in  the  last 
year  or  two  that  about  A.D.  50,  the  natural  and  hardly 
avoidable  address  for  an  audience  in  these  two  cities  would 
have  been  "  Phrygians  "  and  "  Lycaonians  ".  To  see  the 
relation  of  these  national  names  to  the  existing  situation 
in  South  Galatia,  we  must  observe  the  implication. 

We  must  observe  that  a  non-Roman  people,  and  an 
individual  who  is  not  a  Roman  or  Latin  citizen,  could 
belong  to  the  empire  only  by  virtue  of  belonging  to  a 
Province.  The  status  of  each  non-Roman  person  in  the 
Empire  was  that  of  a  "  provincial"  ;  and  he  was  desig- 
nated as  a  member  of  the  Roman  Empire,  not  by  his 
nation,  but  by  his  Province.  His  nation  was  a  non-Roman 
idea  ;  so  long  as  a  person  is  described  as  a  Phrygian  or 
a  Lycaonian,  he  is  thereby  described  as  outside  of  the 
Empire.  In  the  Roman  theory,  the  foreigner,  the  enemy, 
and  the  slave,  are  related  ideas.     If  the  Roman  citizen  can 

1  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  206. 


I20  Historical  Introduction. 

get  a  foreigner  into  his  power,  the  latter  thereby  at  once 
becomes  a  slave  :  the  foreigner  has  no  rights  and  is  merely 
regarded  as  an  enemy,  except  in  so  far  as  by  a  special 
treaty  Rome  has  guaranteed  certain  rights  to  all  members 
of  his  nation.  The  slave  was  designated  by  his  national 
name  as  Phryx  or  Lycao  or  Syrus  :  so  was  a  horse.  But 
the  Roman  soldier  was  designated  by  his  home  in  the 
Empire,  i.e.,  either  his  Province,  or  his  city  as  one  of  the 
units  composing  the  Province  :  only  the  marines,  classiarii, 
who  were  originally  slaves,  were  regularly  designated  after 
the  servile  fashion.^ 

When  an  audience  of  Antiochians  and  Lystrans  was 
addressed  by  a  courteous  orator,  he  would  certainly  not 
address  those  citizens  of  the  Coloniae  by  the  servile  desig- 
nation as  Phrygians  or  Lycaonians.  If  he  sought  to  please 
them,  he  would  designate  them  either  as  Galatae,  i.e., 
members  of  the  Roman  Empire  as  being  members  of  the 
Province  Galatia,  or  as  Coloni,  citizens  of  Roman  Coloniae, 
which  would  be  an  even  more  honorific  term.  An  inscrip- 
tion ^  of  one  of  the  Pisidian  Coloniae,  Comama,  opens  with 
the  address,  in  Latin  and  in  Greek,  "  To  the  Coloni,"  im- 
plying the  pride  of  that  obscure  town  in  the  designation. 
Much  more  would  Antioch  and  her  sister  Lystra  ^  demand 
some  such  Roman  address,  instead  of  the  national  designa- 
tion, Phrygians  and  Lycaonians,  which  ruled  them  out  as 
non-Roman  and  foreign  and  barbarian  :   a  Lycaonian,  in 

^  Mommsen  has  discussed  the  subject  with  his  usual  logical  pre- 
cision and  wide  knowledge  from  several  points  of  view.  See  his 
papers  in  Hermes,  1884,  p.  33  ff,  and  in  Festgabe  fur  G.  Beseler,  p.  255 
fF.     Also  Mitteis,  Reichsrecht  und  Volksrecht,  p.  358  ff. 

^  See  American  Journal  of  Archaeology,  1888,  p.  264. 

^  See  section  21. 


Section  12:  History  of  the  Province  Galatia.      121 

the  Roman  view,  was  either  an  enemy  outside,  or  a  slave 
inside,  the  Empire. 

In  B.C.  5  great  part  of  Paphlagonia  was  taken  into  the 
Galatic  Province.  Paphlagonia,  which  was  in  close  alliance 
with  Galatia  during  part  at  least  of  the  second  century  B.C., 
was  conquered  by  Mithridates  and  Nikomedes  of  Bithynia 
about  B.C.  no;  and  the  conquerors  divided  it.  Pompey, 
in  the  settlement  of  64,  retained  the  partition,  and  appar- 
ently gave  the  western  half  to  l^ylaimenes,  the  eastern  to 
Attalos. 

The  connection  of  Paphlagonia  with  Galatia  is  shown  by 
the  facts  that  part  (probably  the  western)  was  called  "  the 
country  of  Gaizatorix,"  ^  and  that  the  eastern  with  its 
capital  Gangra  was  governed  by  Kastor  40-36,  and  then 
by  his  brother  Deiotaros  Philadelphos  ^  until  B.C.  5,  when 
it  passed  to  the  Romans, 

The  relation  of  Paphlagonia  to  Galatia  is  similar  to  that 
of  northern  and  western  Lycaonia,  as  we  saw  in  Sections 
8,  10,  In  each  case  the  strong  Galatian  state  tended  to 
swallow  up  the  weaker  state  on  its  frontier. 

In  B.C.  2  an  addition  on  the  north-eastern  frontier  was 
made  to  Galatia.^  There  was  there  a  small  state  carved 
out  of  Pontus,  which  Antony  or  Augustus  had  granted  to  a 
Gaul  of  tetrarchic  family  named  Ateporix  ;  it  comprised  a 
village  called  Karana,  formerly  subject  to  Zela,  which  was 
now  formed  into  a  city  by  concentrating  there  the  people 
of  the  surrounding  territory.     This  was  now  taken  into  the 

^  Strabo,  p.  562. 

2  So  M.  Theod.  Reinach,  R&v.  Numism.,  1891,  p.  395.  Deiotaros 
married  Adobogiona  (perhaps  daughter  of  Mithridates  and  grand- 
daughter of  the  older  Adobogiona,  p.  loi). 

3  Date  :  see  Rev.  Etudes  Grecqucs,  1894,  p.  251. 


122  HistoHcal  Introduction. 

Empire,  and  Karana  was  re-named  SebastopoHs  in  honour 
of  its  new  rank. 

Along  with  this  accession  came  the  more  important 
territory  of  Amasia,  formerly  the  capital  of  the  Pontic 
kingdom  ;  apparently  it  was  for  some  reason  taken  away 
from  King  Polemon,  to  whom  it  had  been  given  in  B.C.  36. 
Gazelonitis  (except  its  sea-board)  was  also  probably  annexed 
now  to  the  Galatic  Province,  which  thus  comprised  a  con- 
siderable part  of  Pontus. 

Tiberius,  as  is  well  known,  made  a  point  of  preserving 
Augustus's  arrangement  with  the  least  possible  change  ;  but 
Galatia  attracted  some  attention.  In  Pisidia,  south-east 
from  Antioch,  was  a  tribe  named  Orondeis,  whose  former 
tribal  organisation  was  now  changed  into  the  city  organisa- 
tion of  the  ordinary  Graeco-Roman  type  :  ^  in  other  words, 
a  city  was  founded,  and  part  of  the  tribe  was  concentrated 
in  it  after  the  fashion  of  Greek  municipalities.  This  city, 
of  course,  was  enlarged  from  one  of  the  tribal  villages.  The 
name  of  the  village  had  been  Pappa  or  Papa :  it  now 
became  Tiberiopolis  ;  but  the  old  name  returned,  first 
alongside  of,  and  after  a  time  instead  of,  the  new  title. 

In  34-35  the  territory  of  Comana  Pontica,  one  of  the 
greatest  priestly  centres  in  Asia  Minor,  was  annexed  to 
the  Empire.  It  had  been  ruled  by  a  Gaul,  Dyteutos  (grand- 
son of  Domnilaos),  about  whom  Strabo  tells  a  romantic 
tale.  His  elder  brother  had  been  condemned  to  death 
along  with  his  father  Adiatorix  for  massacring  the  Romans 
resident  in  Heracleia  Pontica.  Dyteutos  claimed  to  be 
the  elder :  the  real  elder  would  not  permit  Dyteutos  to  take 

^  This  was  a  characteristic  process  in  the  imperial  period.  The 
tribal  organisation  was  much  less  developed  and  "  civilised  "  than  the 
city. 


Section  12 :  History  of  the  Province  Galatia.      123 

his  place.  Thus  arose  a  contest  between  the  brothers,  each 
claiming  to  die  for  the  other.  Dyteutos  survived,  and  was 
made  by  Augustus  high  priest  of  Comana,  an  office  which 
he  held  at  least  till  A.D.  19.  He  or  perhaps  his  son  pro- 
bably died  in  34-35,  and  Tiberius  annexed  the  territory. 

Claudius  gave  his  name  to  five  Galatic  cities,  Claudio- 
Seleuceia  in  Pisidia,  Claudio-Derbe  and  Claud-Iconium  ^ 
in  Lycaonia,  Germanicopolis-Gangra  and  Neoclaudiopolis- 
Andrapa  in  Paphlagonia.  These  honorary  names  were, 
doubtless,  connected  with  some  new  arrangements  intro- 
duced into  the  respective  districts.  Derbe  was  the  frontier 
city  from  41  onwards,  and  a  station  for  customs  on  goods 
entering  the  Province.^ 

Nero  in  63  annexed  the  country  called  Pontus  Pole- 
moniacus,  incorporating  it  in  the  Province  Galatia.  Pontus 
consisted  of  three  parts:  (i)  The  coast  on  each  side  of 
Amisos,  in  the  province  Bithynia-Pontus  :  (2)  The  kingdom 
of  Polemon  II,  grandson  of  Polemon  and  the  noble  Queen 
Pythodoris,  called  for  a  century  afterwards  Pontus  Pole- 
moniacus ;  (3)  The  Galatic  territory  of  Pontus,  called 
Pontus  Galaticus,  a  name  which  lasted  even  after  Pontus 
Polemoniacus  was  incorporated  in  the  Galatian  Province. 

This  sketch  brings  out  the  real  sterling  strength  of  the 
Galatic  element  in  central  Asia  Minor.  Not  merely  their 
narrower  old  Galatia,  but  most  of  the  surrounding  countries, 
were  under  Celtic  rule  before  they  came  into  the  Roman 
Empire.  These  facts  in  their  entirety  show  how  pre-emi- 
nently the  Galatic  realm  must  have  occupied  the  Roman 
attention.      All  others  but  the   Galatae   were  an   Asiatic 

^This   act   is   misrepresented    by   some    Biblical   critics   as   the 
establishment  of  a  Roman  Colonia  Iconium,  see  p.  218. 
*  \t.\u\v  Steph.  Byz.     See  section  22. 


124  Historical  Introduction. 

mob :  the  Galatae  were  men,  chiefs,  kings  and  rulers.  Only 
Polemon  was  excepted,  and  Polemon  was  closely  connected 
with  the  Antonian  family. 

The  fate  of  Tracheiotis  or  Cilicia  Tracheia  was  closely 
connected  with  the  Galatic  sphere  of  duty.  When  the 
Province  was  created,  Tracheiotis  was  given  to  Archelaos, 
King  of  Cappadocia  ;  and  Strabo  says  that  the  same  extent 
of  Tracheiotic  territory  was  ruled  by  Cleopatra,  by  Amyntas, 
and  by  Archelaos.  Archelaos  was  degraded  and  died  soon 
after  in  A.D.  17  ;  but  even  before  that,  about  A.D.  11,  owing 
to  his  imbecility,  Augustus  took  two  districts,  Kennatis 
and  Lalassis,  from  him,  and  gave  them  to  Ajax,  son  of 
Teucer,  of  an  ancient  priestly  dynastic  family. 

In  17  Archelaos  II  was  allowed  by  Tiberius  to  rule  part 
of  his  father's  Cilician  kingdom,  while  Cappadocia  was 
made  a  Procuratorial  Province.  The  rest  of  Tracheiotis, 
including  Olba,  Lalassis  and  Kennatis,  was  given  to  M. 
Antonius  Polemon  in  17  or  soon  after.  Ajax,  who  struck 
coins  in  his  fifth  year  under  Tiberius,  had  probably 
died ;  and  Polemon,  Asiatic  dynast  and  Roman  citizen, 
son  of  Polemon  I  of  Pontus,  descended  from  Antony  the 
Triumvir,  ruled  and  coined  money  for  eleven  years  or 
more. 

In  35  Archelaos  instituted  a  census  and  valuation  after 
the  Roman  fashion  (doubtless  acting  under  Roman  orders, 
like  Herod  in  Palestine  B.C.  8-6),  which  provoked  a  rebellion 
among  his  subjects  the  Kietai.^     As  Polemon  is  not  men- 

1  Only  part  of  Ketis  or  Kietis  was  ruled  by  Archelaos,  evidently  the 
northern  part  with  its  centre  at  Hiera-polis  Koropissos  (see  Cities 
and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  p.  11  note).  The  southern  part  had  its 
centre  at  Olba,  the  city  of  Polemon.  On  the  census  see  Christ  Born 
at  Bethlehem,  ch.  8. 


Section  12  :  History  of  the  Province  Galatia.      1 2  5 

tioned,  he  was  probably  dead,  and  perhaps  Archelaos  had 
succeeded  to  his  power.^ 

In  37  Antiochus  IV  of  Commagene  was  granted  part  of 
Tracheiotis  by  Caligula  ;  and,  though  he  seems  soon  to 
have  been  disgraced,  Claudius  in  41  restored  and  enlarged 
his  Tracheiotic  realm.  The  government  of  the  two  Cap- 
padocian  kings  seems  to  have  been  feeble ;  and  a  more 
energetic  ruler  was  needed.  Part  of  Lycaonia,  viz.,  Laranda 
and  the  territory  around,  was  given  to  Antiochus,  who  was 
reckoned  as  king  "  of  the  Lycaonians  ". 

Laranda  had  hitherto  been  part  of  the  Roman  Province, 
and  supplied  soldiers  to  the  Roman  legions.^  But,  though 
a  Lycaonian  city,  it  is  the  true  centre  for  the  administration 
of  Tracheiotis,  because  from  it  radiate  the  roads  that  lead 
across  Tracheiotis  to  the  coast  ;^  and,  apparently,  the 
necessity  for  assigning  it  to  the  king  of  Tracheiotis  was 
now  recognised.  Coins  with  legend  ATKAO'^n^\  were 
struck  by  Antiochus,  evidently  at  Laranda.  Derbe  now 
became  the  frontier  city  of  Roman  territory  and  a  customs 
station  ;  and  its  new  importance  was  marked  with  the  title 
Claud  io-Derbe. 

Antiochus  proved  a  vigorous  ruler.  He  founded  in  Trach- 
eiotis a  large  number  of  cities,  two  named  Claudiopolis  a 
Germanicopolis,  an  Eirenopolis,  two  named  Antiocheia,  an 
lotapa  after  his  queen ;  and  his  reign  marks  an  important 
step  in  the  spread  of  Grasco-Roman  civilisation  in  that 
wild  and  mountainous  region.*     So  successful  was  he,  that 

1  There  is,  however,  no  certain  proof  that  Archelaos  was  king  of 
the  whole  of  the  wide  Ketian  or  Kietian  territory  in  36. 

2  C.  I.  L.,  Ill  2709,  2818,  with  Mommsen's  commentary  on  p.  281. 

3  Historical  Geogr.  of  Asia  Minor,  p.  361. 
*  Revue  Numismatique,  1894,  p.  i6g  f. 


126  Historical  Introduction. 

Vespasian  recognised  Tracheiotis  as  fit  for  incorporation 
in  the  Empire,  and  Antiochus  was  degraded  in  A.D.  72. 

Note. — North  Galatian  Theorists  on  Polemon. 
We  have  said,  p.  4,  that  the  North  Galatian  Theory  rests 
only  on  want  of  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  Asia  Minor  in 
the  time  of  Paul  ;  thus,  e.g.,  in  the  latest  edition  of  Meyer- 
Sieffert,  1899,  p.  8,  we  find  the  assertion  that  Polemon's 
territory  had  by  that  time  come  under  Roman  ownership 
(Polemon's  Gebiet  unter  rom.  Herrschaft  gekommen  war). 
In  truth,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  Polemon's  first  kingdom 
was  still  governed  by  king  Antiochus,  and  practically  the 
whole  of  his  second  kingdom  was  still  ruled  by  his  grand- 
son Polemon  II. 

I  have  been  blamed  for  unreasonably  expecting  theo- 
logians to  be  familiar  with  all  the  most  recent  historical 
investigations  ;  but  it  may  surely  be  expected  that  they  will 
refrain  from  repeating  historical  blunders  and  founding  their 
theories  of  Pauline  history  on  those  false  premises.  There 
are  a  dozen  works  about  Polemon,  from  Waddington's 
Melanges  de  Nutnismatique,  II,  p.  109  ff.,  onwards,  any  of 
which  would  be  sufficient  to  show  the  erroneousness  of 
Meyer-Sieffert's  statement.  There  remain  many  serious 
controversies  about  the  various  persons,  Polemon  I,  M. 
Antonius  Polemon,  Polemon  II,  on  which  we  cannot  enter. 
We  have  given  the  views  which  seem  established  as  the  most 
probable;  and  Mr.  G.  F.  Hill  will  soon  publish  a  detailed 
argument  demonstrating  independently  the  view  advocated 
here  and  in  Hastings'  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  art.  Galatia. 

It  would  be  an  endless  task  to  correct  every  historical 
misstatement  about  Asia  Minor  made  by  the  North 
Galatian  Theorists.     But  it  goes  beyond  the  bounds  of 


Section  12 :  History  of  the  Province  Galatia.      127 

ordinary  mistakes  such  as  we  wink  at  in  theologians  with 
a  fixed  prejudice,  when  Meyer-Siefifert,  p.  1 1  note,  state 
that  Strabo  wrote  before  the  Roman  Province  Galatia  was 
constituted,  and  Dion  Cassius  wrote  after  it  had  been  dis- 
solved. Did  Meyer-Siefifert  fancy  that  Galatia  was  consti- 
tuted in  25  A.D.,  or  did  they  forget  when  Strabo  wrote? 
Galatia  was  constituted  about  forty  years  before  Strabo 
composed  his  history.  Galatia  was  much  smaller  when 
Dion   wrote,  but  even  then  it  was  a  huge  Province. 


SECTION  13. 

CIVILISATION  OF  GALATIA  UNDER  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

In  our  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Province  Galatia, 
we  have  reached  the  period  when  Paul  and  Barnabas 
entered  it.  We  must  now  state  the  evidence  showing  the 
character  of  the  southern  and  northern  parts  of  the  Province 
respectively. 

It  is,  of  course,  not  open  to  dispute  that  Paul  founded 
churches  in  four  cities  of  South  Galatia,  viz.,  Antioch, 
Iconium,  Derbe  and  Lystra.  The  only  point  in  dispute  is 
whether  Paul  founded  also  another  set  of  churches  in  North 
Galatia.  The  South  Galatian  theory  is  that  no  churches 
were  founded  by  Paul  in  North  Galatia  ;  and  that  when  he 
speaks  of  the  churches  of  Galatia,  he  means  the  four 
churches  in  the  south  of  the  Province  Galatia.  The  North 
Galatian  theory  is  that  Paul  also  founded  churches  in 
North  Galatia,  and  that,  when  he  speaks  of  his  churches  of 
Galatia,  he  means  only  the  churches  of  North  Galatia,  and 
excludes  the  four  South  Galatian  cities. 

The  opinion  that  Paul  included  in  his  "churches  of 
Galatia  "  both  those  of  South  and  others  of  North  Galatia 
is  not  held  by  any  ;  and  is,  in  fact,  barred  by  the  conditions 
of  the  question.^     On  this  we  need  not  enter. 

1  In  his  admirable  Einleitung,  1897,  Prof.  Th.  Zahn  finds  in  the 
Churches  of  Galatia  a  certain  North-Galatian  part,  but  only  second- 

(128) 


Section  / j  :   Civilisation  of  Galatia.         129 

To  the  scholar  who  studies  the  society  of  the  eastern 
Roman  provinces,  North  Galatia  stands  apart  and  isolated 
from  the  cities  of  the  southern  part  of  the  Province.  Re- 
serving South  Galatia  for  the  final  Sections,  we  now  gather 
together  all  that  is  known  about  society  and  civilisation  in 
Imperial  North  Galatia. 

We  saw  in  the  sketch  of  its  history,  the  failure  of 
Greek  civilisation  to  establish  itself  there,  and  the  strength 
of  the  reaction  towards  the  Celtic  national  character.  It 
has  never  proved  easy  to  eliminate  the  national  genius  of 
a  Celtic  race  ;  and  the  Celtic  element  in  North  Galatia, 
though  numerically  inferior,  was  immeasurably  superior  in 
practical  strength  to  the  older  Phrygian  element. 

A  convincing  proof  of  the  essential  contrast  in  character 
between  Galatia  and  the  Graeco-Asiatic  Provinces  that 
bordered  on  it,  lies  in  the  societies  of  Hellenes  which  formed 
a  feature  in  all  of  them.  These  Hellenes  were  really 
Hellenised  people  of  the  province,  and  not  as  a  rule  Greeks 
by  blood  or  descent ;  and  in  many  provinces  the  Hellenes 
were  formed  into  associations,  meeting  in  the  worship  of 
the  Emperors.  In  Asia  and  in  Bithynia  the  Association  of 
Hellenes  was  the  Provincial  Association,  the  Koinon  of  the 
cities  of  the  province.  The  titles,  "  the  Hellenes  in  (the 
Province)  Asia,"  "the  Koinon  of  the  Hellenes  in  Asia," 
are  precisely  equivalent  to  "  the  Koinon  of  Asia,"  and  the 
head  of  "  the  Hellenes  in  Asia  "  was  the  Asiarch  ^  or  high 

ary  and  unimportant :  to  him  the  important  and  determining  element 
lies  in  the  four  South-Galatian  Churches.  In  proportion  as  that 
North-Galatian  element  is  insignificant,  it  withdraws  itself  from 
consideration,  and  the  self-contradictoriness  of  the  view  escapes 
notice. 

^We  do  not  enter  on  controversies  as  to  the  powers,  etc.,  of  the 
Asiarch. 

9 


130  Historical  Introduction. 

priest  of  the  Province.  Similarly  the  Koinon  of  the 
Hellenes  in  Bithynia  was  simply  the  Koinon  of  Bithynia, 
the  assembly  of  representatives  of  the  cities  of  Bithynia, 
of  which  the  head  and  president  was  the  Bithynarch.  This 
is  very  clearly  put  by  Dion  Cassius,  LI  20,  where  he  says 
that  "  Augustus  permitted  the  non-citizens,  Xenoi,  (accord- 
ing them  the  title  Hellenes)  to  erect  temples  to  him, 
those  of  Asia  at  Pergamos,  and  those  of  Bithynia  at 
Nikomedeia  ". 

But  in  Galatia  the  Koinon  of  the  Province,  or  the  Koinon 
of  Galatians,^  was  distinct  and  separate  from  the  Association 
of  the  Hellenes.  The  Koinon  was  apparently  organised 
on  the  basis  of  the  three  tribes  ^  (though  details  are  quite 
unknown),  and  its  president  was  the  Galatarch.  The 
Association  of  Hellenes  had  as  its  president  the  Helladarch; 
and  was  doubtless  formed  of  representatives  from  the  poleis, 
the  cities  so  far  as  they  had  adopted  the  Greek  fashion, 
sent  either  by  the  cities  officially  or  by  special  societies  in 
the  cities.  There  is  no  evidence  as  to  the  date  when  the 
Association  of  Hellenes  in  Galatia  was  formed  ;  but  none 
of  the  inscriptions  mentioning  it  are  earlier  than  about 
A.D.  1 50,  whereas  the  Koinon  of  Galatians  was  organised  by 
Augustus, 

As  to  the  organisation  and  law  of  household  and  family 

^To  Koivoi/  YoKaxiitv  in  first  century  inscriptions,  C.  I.  G.,  4039,  Citi&s 
and  Bish.  of  Phr.,  pt.  II,  p.  648,  no.  558  :  to  Koivov  tS>v  raXaTciv  in  C.  I. 
G.,  4016,  4017  (third  or  late  second  century):  Koivov  TaXarias  on  coins 
of  Trajan. 

^edvT] :  in  C.  I.  G.,  4039,  the  only  authority  of  much  consequence, 
"the  three  tribes"  and  "the  two  tribes"  are  often  mentioned:  "the 
two  tribes"  apparently  held  a  joint  meeting  at  Pessinus,  while  "the 
three  tribes"  met  on  certain  festivals  in  Ancyra.  The  Trocmi  were 
far  less  civilised  than  the  "  two  tribes  ". 


Section  ij :  Civilisation  of  Galatia.         131 

in  Galatia  under  the  Romans,  the  two  leading  modem 
authorities  have  pronounced  a  decisive  judgment. 

Professor  Mitteis,  speaking  of  the  slow  and  imperfect 
adoption  of  Hellenic  civilisation  in  inner  Asia  Minor,  says 
that  "  the  Galatians  especially  constituted  a  distinct  and 
exclusive  stock  of  the  population  "  through  the  preserva- 
tion of  its  language  at  least  in  the  early  imperial  period,^ 
and  the  continuance  of  Celtic  customs. 

Mommsen  points  out  that,  though  the  Phrygian  religion 
was  adopted  by  the  Galatians,  ''nevertheless,  even  in  the 
Roman  Province  of  Galatia,  the  internal  organisation  was 
predominantly  Celtic.  The  fact  that  even  under  Pius,  A.D. 
1 38- 16 1,  the  strict  paternal  power  foreign  to  Hellenic  law 
subsisted  in  Galatia  is  a  proof  of  this  from  the  sphere  of 
private  law." 

The  last  sentence  refers  to  the  evidence  of  the  Roman 
lawyer  Gaius,  I  55,  who,  speaking  of  the  characteristic 
Roman  custom  that  the  father  had  absolute  power  over  his 
children  (even  to  life  and  death),  says  that  there  are  hardly 
any  others  among  whom  this  right  exists,  with  the  one 
exception  of  the  Galatians,  quoting  from  a  rescript  of 
Hadrian  the  recognition  of  this  Galatian  custom.  Caesar  ^ 
mentions  the  same  custom  as  ruling  among  the  tribes  of 
Gaul. 

Such  power  of  a  father  over  his  children  was  repugnant 
to  the  Greeks ;  and  its  existence  in  Galatia  shows  how 
fundamentally  un-Hellenic  was  the  social  system  of  that 
country  even  in  the  second  century  after  Christ 

^  He  means  the  first  two  centuries,  and  leaves  the  question  as 
to  the  authority  of  Jerome  (see  p.  155),  to  be  discussed  by  others, 
Reichsrecht  und  Volksrecht,  p.  23. 

^  Bell.  Gall.,  VI  19  (false  reference  in  Mitteis,  p.  24  note). 


132  Historical  Introduction. 

Here  the  questions  may  be  asked  by  those  who  have 
not  specially  studied  the  Roman  provincial  system,  whether 
the  Galatian  law  would  be  made  uniform  throughout  the 
Province,  and  whether  the  Roman  law  would  not  be  intro- 
duced in  the  Province  in  place  of  the  old  native  law.  Neither 
would  be  done :  both  were  contrary  to  the  Roman  system. 
Each  district  was  administered  according  to  its  private  law 
and  hereditary  usage  (as  is  pointed  out  in  the  beginning 
of  Section  17).  Violent  or  sudden  changes  in  society  were 
shunned  by  Roman  policy. 

The  old  custom  that  the  chiefs  and  leading  men  feasted 
the  tribesmen,  which  flourished  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Galatian  state,^  was  still  practised  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius. 
The  public  gifts  and  donations  of  leading  Gauls  about  A.D. 
10-30  are  recorded  in  a  fragmentary  inscription.  Such 
inscriptions  are  common  also  in  Asia  ;  and  a  comparison 
of  Asian  and  Galatian  inscriptions  shows  the  difference  of 
manners  in  the  two  Provinces.  The  chief  Galatian  enter- 
tainment is  a  banquet  to  the  people  :  the  gifts  of  almost 
every  donor  begin  with  a  public  feast ;  sometimes  it  is 
stated  that  the  feast  was  given  to  the  two  tribes  at  Pessinus, 
sometimes  to  the  three  tribes  (meeting,  of  course,  in  Ancyra), 
generally  a  "  public  feast"  alone ^  is  given. 

After  the  feasts  are  often  mentioned  shows  of  gladiators 
and  combats  of  wild  beasts  {venationes)  after  the  Roman 
fashion  ;  these  were  not  much  to  the  Greek  taste,  and  were 
not  very  popular  in  the  Province  Asia,  nor  very  common 
there :  inscriptions  show  that  gladiators  were  sometimes 
shown  in  the  great  Asian  cities,  but  were  far  less  popular 
and  common  than  games  of  the  Greek  style. 

^  See  above,  p.  79.  ^  8i]fio6oivia. 


Section  ij :   Civilisation  of  Galatia.         133 

Thereafter,  distributions  of  oil  are  mentioned.  These 
were  after  the  Greek  fashion,  and  are  the  commonest  form 
of  pubHc  hberahty  in  Asian  inscriptions;  but  the  lavish 
use  of  oil  was  universal  in  the  Mediterranean  lands,  and  does 
not  prove  much  for  Galatian  imitation  of  Greek  customs. 

The  characteristic  point  lies  in  the  games  that  were  given. 
These  were  almost  always  of  the  Roman  and  bloody  type. 
An  athletic  contest  is  mentioned  only  once.  Chariot  races 
and  horse  races  were  commoner,  but  these  were  by  that 
time  as  characteristic  of  Rome  as  of  Greece.  What  was 
aimed  at  by  the  Galatian  donors  was  clearly  Circensian 
games  of  the  Roman  style.  Bull-fights,  which  were  said 
to  be  of  Thessalian  origin,  but  were  regarded  as  un-Hellenic 
and  barbaric  by  the  true  Greeks,  are  several  times  mentioned. 
The  least  Hellenic  among  Greek  sports  is  the  one  which 
the  Galatians  patronised,  for  it  was  more  after  the  Roman 
sanguinary  style.^ 

Hecatombs  also  are  often  mentioned  among  the  gifts. 
These  were  undoubtedly  great  sacrifices  in  the  Imperial 
religion  practised  by  the  Koinon  of  the  Galatians,  Heca- 
tombs were  no  longer  a  Greek  custom,  and  are  hardly 
mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  thoroughly  Hellenised 
cities.  Probably  these  Galatian  hecatombs  are  a  mild  and 
civilised  representative  of  the  Celtic  and  early  Galatian 
custom  of  human  sacrifices  on  a  gigantic  scale  (see  p.  78). 

Thus  under  Tiberius,  the  spectacular  side  of  society,  the 
shows  under  the  patronage  of  the  Koinon,  are  mainly  of 
Celtic  or  of  Roman,  not  of  Greek  style.  And  later  inscrip- 
tions of  the  Pessinuntine  State  are  similar. 

In  the  tribal  organisation  lay  the  essence  of  the  Celtic 

^  M,  Perrot  well  states  this,  d&  Galatia  Prov.  Rom..,  p,  85, 


134  Historical  Introduction. 

character  as  it  worked  itself  out  in  practical  society.  Where 
the  Celtic  people  has  created  any  organisation,  it  gives  to 
it  the  tribal  character.  The  Celtic  Church,  as  it  temporarily 
ruled  in  Northern  England  and  Scotland,  rises  to  one's 
mind  (in  the  brilliant  sketch,  for  example,  of  J.  R.  Green). 
Its  strength  and  its  weakness  lay  in  the  loose,  but  free,  tribal 
system. 

The  Romans  did  not  attempt  to  destroy  the  tribal  system 
in  Galatia.  Not  merely  were  they  always  unwilling  to 
force  sudden  and  violent  changes  on  the  subject  peoples  ; 
they  also  saw  that  the  tribal  system  was  the  antithesis  of 
Hellenism,  and  they  were  not  at  first  eager  to  make  Hel- 
lenism absolutely  supreme  in  Asia,  There  were  only  two 
alternatives  in  the  last  days  of  the  free  Galatian  state  :  it 
must  either  be  Celtic,  or  it  must  yield  to  the  pressure  of  the 
Greek  ocean  that  surrounded  it  on  three  sides. 

In  other  Provinces  of  the  Roman  State  the  fiction  was 
usually  maintained  that  there  was  only  one  "  tribe "  or 
"  nation  ".^  Even  in  provinces  which  were  composed  of 
many  distinct  nations,  such  as  Asia,^  the  official  form  ad- 
mitted only  one  "nation,"  viz.,  the  Roman  idea,  the  Province: 
in  other  words,  the  "  nation  "  officially  was  the  Province. 
"The  Nation  Asia"  (^  ' Aala  to  edvo<i)  was  the  technical 
Greek  form  translating  the  Latin  Asia  Provincial  But  in 
Galatia  the  old  Three  Tribes  or  Nations — -ra  rpia  edvrj — 
continued  to  be  the  Roman  official  form. 

1  eQtioi.  An  exception  in  Bithynia-Pontus,  where  the  double 
nationality  was  officially  recognised  in  the  constitution  and  in  the 
technical  Roman  name  of  the  Province. 

*  Mysians,  Lydians,  Greeks,  Carians,  Phrygians,  Solymi  in  Cibyra, 
etc 

^  Dion  Cassius,  LIV  30. 


Section  ij :  Civilisation  of  Galatia.         135 

The  theory  has  been  stated  that  this  form  was  applied 
to  the  whole  Province,  and  that  the  Koinon  of  the  Galatians, 
i.e.,  the  Three  Tribes  meeting  in  a, Diet  or  Common  Council, 
was  as  wide  as  the  Province.  This  would  imply  that  the 
other  divisions  of  the  Province  were  by  a  fiction  represented 
as  enrolled  in  one  or  other  of  the  Three  Tribes.  A  trace 
of  this  is  perhaps  preserved  in  an  inscription  of  Apollonia, 
dated  A.D.  57,^  implying  that  that  city  was  of  the  Trocmi, 
Another  indication  may  be  found  in  the  dedication  at 
Apollonia  of  a  copy  of  the  great  inscription  of  Ancyra, 
commonly  called  the  Monumentum  Ancyranum.  The  Gala- 
tian  Koinon,  which  dedicated  the  one  at  Ancyra,  may  be 
presumed  to  have  dedicated  the  other  also.  But  this 
theory  is  too  uncertain  to  be  taken  as  evidence.^  It  is 
enough  that  in  North  Galatia  the  Three  Ethng  were  recog- 
nised and  left  undisturbed  in  the  Provincial  organisation. 

As  Mommsen  says,  in  North  Galatia,  as  a  part  of  the 
Province,  at  the  beginning,  "  in  public  relations  there  were 
still  only  the  three  old  communities,  the  Tribes,  who  per- 
haps appended  to  their  names  those  of  the  three  chief 
places,  Ancyra,  Pessinus  and  Tavium,  but  were  essentially 
nothing  but  the  well-known  Gallic  cantons  ".  In  process 
of  time  the  pressure  of  Hellenism  became  too  strong,  while 
the  vigour  of  the  Roman  system  died  out,  and  Galatia  was 
Hellenised.     But  the  process  was  slow. 

The  two  systems,  Celtic  and  Greek,  stand  contrasted  in 
their  characteristic  forms,  the  Tribe  and  the  City  or  Polls. 
As  the  Greek  system  established  itself,  Galatia  became, 

^  Studia  Biblica,  IV  54. 

2  If  for  a  time  Rome  tried  to  make  the  Galatian  tribal  Koinon 
co-extensive  with  the  Province,  the  attempt  apparently  failed,  as  the 
Romanising  effort  weakened. 


136  Historical  Introduction. 

like  other  Hellenised  Provinces,  a  body  of  Cities  ;  and  the 
progress  of  that  system  can  be  traced  by  the  appearance 
of  Poleis. 

It  is  quite  consistent  with  the  Tribal  system  that  a  Tribe 
should  have  a  town-centre.  The  town,  however,  was  not 
organised  as  a  polls,  it  was  simply  the  centre  of  the  Tribe. 
Many  examples  might  be  quoted  from  Gaul  of  the  growth 
of  town-centres  in  each  tribe,  and  the  growth  of  organised 
municipal  institutions  in  the  centres.^ 

A  similar  process,  only  making  Greek  poleis  instead  of 
Roman  municipia,  went  on  among  the  three  Tribes  in 
North  Galatia.  They  had  as  their  centres  the  three  towns, 
Pessinus  for  the  Tolistobogii,  Ancyra  for  the  Tectosages, 
Tavium  for  the  Trocmi.  But  these  were  not  at  first  termed 
cities  (TToA-ei?).  The  Tribe  was  the  essential  idea,  and  the 
town  was  the  Tribal  centre. 

The  strict  and  proper  title  of  the  town  mentioned  first 
the  nation,  next  the  tribe,  last  the  town,  e.g.  : — 

Galatae,  Tolistobogii,  Pessinuntii. 
Galatae,  Trocmi,  Taviani. 

In  each  case  there  were  varieties  ;  and  in  each  the  simple 
Greek  designation  as  Pessinuntines,  Tavians,  was  gradually 
introduced.  The  difference  is  not  a  slight  one.  The  Greek 
title  makes  the  city  the  essential  idea,  and  speaks  only  of 
inhabitants  of  the  city  :  the  Galatian  title  makes  the  town 
a  part  of  the  Tribe,  and  lays  the  chief  stress  on  the  Tribe, 

The  evolution  from  the  idea  of  the  town  as  tribal  centre 
to  the  Greek  conception  of  the  city  is  best  shown  in  the 

^  See  Mommsen,  "  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire  "  (Rom.  Gesch., 
V),  ch.  III. ;  Hirschfeld,  Gallische  Studien  ;  Kuhn,  Verfassung  dcs  Rom. 
Reichs.  Rushforth,  Latin  Historical  Inscr.,  pp.  13-18,  gives  briefly 
and  clearly  some  typical  examples. 


Section  ij :  Civilisation  of  Galatia.         137 

gradual  change  of  legends  on  the  coins  struck  at  the  three 
tribal  centres,  as  stated  fully  in  the  following  paragraphs. 
Those  who  have  not  studied  the  subject  as  a  whole  in  the 
various  parts  of  Asia  Minor  for  its  own  sake  and  apart  from 
theological  theories  and  prepossessions,  will  hardly  appre- 
ciate the  unique  character  of  Galatian  titles  and  the  in- 
dubitable proof  that  is  thereby  given  of  the  peculiar  and 
distinct  constitution  and  system  existing  in  North  Galatia. 
Probably  some  of  the  German  champions  of  the  North 
Galatian  Theory  will  meet  us  with  the  question  what  the 
titles  of  Galatian  cities  have  to  do  with  the  Biblical  question. 
But  it  is  on  the  ground  of  a  title  that  they  have  now  elected 
to  rest  their  own  Theory :  the  most  recent  form  of  the  argu- 
ment by  which  they  demonstrate  the  impossibility  of  the 
South  Galatian  Theory  is  simply  that  they  cannot  believe 
that  Paul  (Roman  citizen  as  he  was)  could  apply  the  title 
"  Galatae  "  in  the  sense  of  "  Men  of  the  Province  Galatia  " 
to  the  inhabitants  of  four  South  Galatian  cities.^  They 
give  no  arguments :  they  quote  no  analogous  cases :  they 
simply  state  a  bare  negative  on  their  own  authority,  yet 
no  sign  appears  that  they  have  specially  studied  the  use 
and  implication  of  political  titles  amid  the  contending 
forces  that  were  then  causing  the  development  of  society 
in  central  Asia  Minor.  Every  thinking  man  knows  how 
delicate  is  the  innuendo  that  often  lies  in  political  titles, 
and  how  much  they  often  change  in  connotation  amid  the 
pressure  of  social  forces.     But  the  North  Galatian  theorist, 

^  See,  e.g.,  Schiirer  in  Theol.  Littztg.,  1893,  p.  507,  Blass  in  his  larger 
edition  of  Acts,  p.  176.  [More  recently  Meyer-Sieffert  admit  the 
proof  (given  in  reply  to  Schurer  and  Blass  in  Studia  Biblica,  IV)  that 
Galatae  could  mean  "people  of  the  Province,"  and  try  to  argue, 
reasonably  and  fairly,  that  Paul  would  not  use  it  so.] 


138  Historical  Introduction. 

who  looks  on  the  history  of  Asia  Minor  as  a  mine  from 
which  he  may  extract  some  confirmation  of  his  prejudice, 
has  firmly  made  up  his  mind  beforehand  that  the  word 
"  Galatae  "  could  never  have  any  other  than  the  single  and 
simple  meaning,  "  men  who  are  Gauls  by  blood  and 
descent ".  We  who  begin  by  studying  Asia  Minor  before 
we  decide  about  the  meaning  of  the  titles  used  there,  know 
that  it  would  be  as  absurd  to  argue  that  the  word  "  Frangais" 
now  could  not  be  used  in  addressing  an  audience  of  Breton 
and  Norman  towns,  as  that  the  word  "  Galatae  "  could  not 
be  used  in  A.D.  54  in  addressing  an  audience  of  South 
Galatian  cities. 

The  study  of  the  titles  chosen  by  North  Galatian  towns 
and  impressed  on  their  coins  is  of  real  importance  in  esti- 
mating the  character  of  the  social  forces  working  in  Asia 
Minor  when  Paul  wrote  his  Epistle.  History  had  developed 
rapidly  in  the  332  years  since  the  Gauls  entered  that 
country  ;  but  yet  the  Celtic  tribal  feeling  was  still  dominant 
for  a  full  century  later  than  Paul,  and  that  feeling  was  the 
negative  of  Hellenism. 

In  the  typical  titles  "  Galatae,  Trocmi,  Taviani,''  etc.,  the 
meaning  of  the  three  elements  must  be  noticed,  in  order  to 
appreciate  the  meaning  of  the  variation.  "  Trocmi,"  indi- 
cates the  tribe.  "  Taviani "  indicates  the  tribal  centre, 
where  the  coinage  and  other  administrative  powers  in  the 
tribe  are  situated.  But  "Galatae"  is  not  a  mere  assertion 
of  Gaulish  or  Celtic  origin  :  it  expresses  a  living  political 
fact.  The  tribal  character,  as  shown  in  the  second  element, 
"  Trocmi,"  fully  satisfied  Celtic  pride.  The  first  element, 
"  Galatae,"  is  the  Roman  imperial  element :  it  embodies 
the  idea  of  Roman  unity,  i.e.,  the  Provincia  of  which  the 
Trocmi  gloried  in  forming  a  part. 


Section  ij  :  Civilisation  of  Galatia.         1 39 

That  such  is  the  force  of  the  element  "  Galatae "  in  the 
typical  title  is  proved  by  the  common  substitution  for  it  of 
the  "  Imperial  "  adjective  "  Sebaste  "  or  "  Sebasteni  ".  When 
a  tribe  called  itself  "  Imperial  "  or  "  Augustan,"  ^  that 
sufficiently  recognised  the  Roman  unity,  and  it  did  not 
then  use  the  provincial  title  Galatae. 

It  must  be  emphatically  stated,  as  the  foundation  of  true 
conceptions  on  this  subject,  that  the  "  Province "  is  the 
embodiment  of  Roman  unity  among  all  members  of  the 
Empire,  who  were  not  actually  cives  Romani.  The  ideal 
which  the  Empire  slowly  worked  out  was  the  recognition 
of  all  members  of  the  Empire  as  cives  about  A.D.  212.  The 
word  Provincia  then  lost  its  old  force,  and  denoted  thence- 
forward only  what  it  now  denotes,  a  division  for  administra- 
tive purposes  of  the  homogeneous  Empire. 

The  coinage  of  Pessinus,  on  the  most  probable  dating, 
began  shortly  before  100  B.C.,  evidently  connected  with 
the  temple  and  arranged  by  the  priestly  hierarchy.  In 
the  early  Roman  period  the  same  kind  of  coinage  persisted, 
with  legends  : — 

Mother  of  the  Gods, 

Mother  of  the  Pessinuntines, 

The  Ilean  Goddess  of  the  Pessinuntines. 

Under  Claudius,  41-54,  the  style  develops  ;  sometimes, 

Of  the  Mother  of  the  Pessinuntines  under  Afrinus, 

adding  the  recognition  of  the  Roman  provincial  governor. 

Sometimes  the  Goddess  is  represented  only  by  her  image 

with, 

Of  the  Pessinuntines  under  Afrinus. 

This  style  is  quite  that  of  the  ordinary  Asian  Graeco- 
Roman  cities,  and  marks  clearly  the  growth  of  Occiden- 

'  Sebastos  was  the  Greek  for  Augustus. 


140  Historical  Introduction. 

talism.  But  it  disappears  again,  and  under  Nero,  54-68, 
Poppaea  is  mentioned  instead  of  the  Goddess,  with  !!£  or 
li^X  added,  marking  an  increase  of  the  Roman  element 
and  weakening  of  the  Greek. 

But  after  this  the  Celtic  tone  increases ;  ^  and  for  the 
first  time  the  tribal  system  becomes  fully  dominant  in  the 
old  Phrygian  city  in  the  legend  : — 

Of  the  Galatae  Tolistobogii  Pessinuntines ; 

and  this  continued  in  regular  use  till  160-170,  when  the 
simple  Greek  form  began  : — 

Of  the  Pessinuntines  : 

and  became  universal  after  170. 

The  only  two  oflficial  inscriptions  ^  of  Pessinus  are  erected 
by  the  "  Senate  and  people  of  the  Sebasteni  Tolistobogii 
Pessinuntines  ",  Both  belong  to  the  second  century.  They 
mention  a  course  of  office  that  is  hardly  of  the  fully  Hel- 
lenised  type,  speaking  of  agoranomoi  and  astynomoi  and 
eirenarchs  and  public  feasts  ^  and  distributions  of  corn,  but 
not  of  archons  or  strategoi  and  the  usual  career  in  the 
Asian  cities.  The  tone  is  on  the  whole  at  least  as  much 
Roman  as  Greek. 

The  ancient  Phrygian  city  of  Ancyra  had  declined  to 
be  a  mere  fortress  under  the  Gauls.*  Though  it  was 
the  capital  of  the  Roman  Province,  its  coins  did  not  bear 
the  name  Ancyra  during  the  first  century,  but  have 
the  legends  of  Romanised  Celtic  character : — 

Of  the  Augustan  Tectosages, 
'Sefia(TTr)vS>v  TfKToadyav. 

^  Hitherto  it  was  weak  in  Pessinus,  see  pp.  55,  62,  73  f. 
2  C.  I.  G.,  4085 ;  Athen.  Mittheilungen,  1897,  P-  44  (Kbrte). 
*  See  p.  132.  *  See  p.  74. 


Section  /j;  Civilisation  of  Galatia.         141 

Koinon  of  the  Galatians, 
Koifoi'  YoLKarmv. 

Under  Vespasian,  69-79,  and  Nerva,  96-98,  coins  with  the 
full  name  and  title  of  the  Roman  governor,  and  the  name 
of  Ancyra  half-hidden  in  monogram,  were  struck  ;  similar 
coins  under  Titus,  79-81,  are  mentioned,  with  KO  '  TAA  '  in 
place  of  the  city  name ;  and  under  Trajan,  98-117,  similar 
coins  with  the  Roman  governor  and  the  full  title  Kowov 
raXarlafi,  but  without  the  city  name,  were  struck. 

Under  Pius,  i38-i6i,the  fully  developed  Greek  fashion — 
Of  the  Metropolis  Ancyra, 

was  introduced  and  permanently  fixed. 

In  inscriptions  composed  in  name  of  the  city,  a  similar 
practice  was  observed.  Those  of  the  later  second  and  third 
centuries  are  in  the  name  of  Metropolis  Ancyra ;  but  in  the 
early  second  century  the  title  runs  (C.  I.  G.,  401 1) : — 

Metropolis  of  Galatia  Imperial  Tectosagan  Anc)a'a, 
J]  fjLTjTpvnoKis  rrfs  TaXarlas  2f/3acrT^  TfKTOcrdycov  "AyKvpa  ', 

earlier  still  the  form — 

Senate  and  People  of  the  Imperial  Tectosages, 
r]  ^ovXt)  Koi  6  Brjuos  "Sit^aarqvmv  TfKTOtrdycoi/. 

At  Tavium  the  legend — 

Of  the  Imperial  Trocmi, 

was  regular  in  the  first  century,  and  under  Pius.  Coins  are 
very  rare  from  100  to  200.  Then  under  Severus  and  Cara- 
calla  they  are  numerous  with — 

Of  the  Imperial  Trocmi  Tavians, 
'2e^aaTT)vci>v  TpoKfiav  TaoviavS>Vj 

and  also  the  pure  Greek  style  Taoviavwv.  Later  coins 
hardly  occur. 

In  the  first  century  B.C.  rare  coins  reading  TaovUov  occur. 


142  Historical  Introduction, 

of  the  pure  Greek  style.  These  point  to  some  isolated 
Greek  influence  at  work  in  Eastern  Galatia ;  and  we 're- 
member that  Graeco-Pontic  influence  was  strong  in  Galatia 
for  a  time,  and  would  be  strongest  in  Tavium. 

These  facts  show  how  long  the  tribal  idea  continued 
dominant  in  Galatia.  Only  after  the  Greek  style  of  title 
for  the  city  had  become  the  regular  official  form,  are  we 
justified  in  saying  that  the  Greek  manners  and  customs 
were  dominant  in  the  cities:  i.e.,  at  Ancyra  about  150, 
at  Pessinus  about  165,  at  Tavium  about  205.  Naturally 
there  was  a  Hellenised  element  in  the  cities  from  an  early 
period,  but  it  became  the  dominant  element  about  that 
time. 

If  such  are  the  dates  in  the  three  great  cities,  what  must 
we  say  about  the  rustic  districts  and  the  villages,  which  are 
found  as  cities  and  bishoprics  in  the  fourth  century,  but 
whose  very  names  are  sometimes  unknown  in  the  second 
century?  It  is  certainly  quite  unjustifiable  to  speak  of 
Greek  manners,  Greek  civilisation,  Greek  ways  of  thinking 
among  them  about  a.d.  50. 

As  to  the  constitution  of  the  Galatian  cities,  Ancyra  and 
Pessinus  are  the  only  two  about  which  any  evidence  has 
been  preserved.  They  are  the  two  that  were  earliest 
Hellenised  ;  and  the  inscriptions  which  give  evidence  are 
almost  all  of  the  late  Hellenising  period. 

Three  characteristics  are  at  once  evident : — 

I.  The  strong  dissimilarity  in  almost  every  respect  to 
the  Hellenised  cities  of  the  Province  Asia.  Archons, 
Agoranomoi  and  Agonothetai  are  almost  the  only  Greek 
titles  that  occur,  probably  the  Agoranomoi  are  Roman 
aediles  (p.  143),  while  the  Agonothetai  were  presidents  of 
Circensian  games  (p.   133),  not  of  Greek  sports. 


Section  ij :  Civilisation  of  Galatia.         143 

2.  The  resemblance  in  many  points  to  the  Hellenised 
cities  of  Bithynia-Pontus  and  the  Euxine  coasts,  e.g.^ 
Astynomoi,  Politographoi.^ 

These  facts  show  that,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the 
Galatian  cities  were  in  far  closer  relations  with  the  cities  of 
Bithynia-Pontus  than  of  Asia.  We  notice  in  corroboration 
of  this  that  the  resident  strangers  mentioned  in  Galatian 
inscriptions  are  two  from  Nikomedeia,  C.  I.  G.,  4077,  Bull. 
Corr.  Hell.,  VII,  p.  27  ;  two  from  Sinope, /t>«r«.  Hell  Stud., 
1899,  p.  58;  one  from  Byzantium,  Mordtmann,  Mann. 
Ancyr.,  p.  22;  but  none  from  Asia.     See  p.   154. 

3.  Roman  facts  and  analogies,  so  rare  in  the  Province 
Asia,  are  very  numerous  in  Ancyra.  Even  the  comitium  ^ 
is  mentioned  there.  Each  town  tribe  ^  met  separately  and 
passed  its  own  decrees,  like  the  Vici  in  Colonia  Antiocheia  : 
the  Phylarch  of  the  town  tribe  was  an  important  official, 
corresponding  to  the  Roman  magister  vici.  The  title  "  Son 
of  the  Phyle  "  takes  the  place  of  the  Asian  compliment, 
"Son  of  the  City". 

Eirenarchs,  who  occur  everywhere  in  Asia  as  in  Galatia, 
were  responsible  more  to  the  Roman  officers  than  to  the 
city  administration.  There  is  an  extraordinarily  large  pro- 
portion of  Latin  inscriptions  and  of  Latin  names  among 
the  people.  Hence  the  agoranomoi,  who  are  so  often  men- 
tioned, are  more  likely  to  be  in  reality  Roman  aediles 
than  strictly  Greek  magistrates  (as  they  were  in  Asia). 

The  chief  results  may  now  be  summed  up  as  follows. 

1  No  Astynomoi  are  mentioned  in  Asia,  and  only  once  the  noun 
Politographia  (in  a  Latin  inscription  of  Nakoleia,  C.  I.  L.,  Ill  6998). 
^  C.  I.  G.,  4019  read  iv  Kofieria. 
*  ^vX^,  not  Z6vos. 


144  Historical  Introduction. 

The  Gauls  of  Galatia  were  brought  in  contact  chiefly  with 
three  classes  :  the  Phrygian  inhabitants  of  Galatia,  the  Hel- 
lenised  peoples  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the  Romans.  They 
learned  much  from  all  of  them. 

From  the  Phrygians  they  adopted  their  religion,  adding 
to  it  certain  Celtic  elements.  Further,  they  coalesced  with 
them  into  a  single  people.  The  amalgamation  became 
much  more  thorough  after  Galatia  ceased  to  be  a  sovereign 
power,  and  became  a  mere  Province  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  governing  Romans  treated  all  Galatians  as  practically 
equal ;  and  valued  most  those  who  were  most  useful  to 
them.  The  privileges  of  the  Gaulish  aristocracy  could  not 
be  long  maintained  under  a  foreign  government,  except  in 
so  far  as  they  were  supported  either  by  wealth  and  landed 
property^  or  by  natural  ability.  The  domination  of  the 
aristocratic  caste  came  to  an  end  when  Galatia  became  a 
Roman  Province,  and  with  it  the  broad  line  of  separation 
was  rapidly  obliterated. 

From  the  Hellenes  of  Asia  Minor  they  adopted  a  second 
language,'^  along  with  many  educated  customs  and  arts. 
The  Oecumenical  Association  of  athletes  and  Dionysiac 
artists,  known  also  widely  over  the  eastern  provinces,  began 
to  appear  in  Ancyra  and  Pessinus  in  the  second  century ; 
and  along  with  it  appeared  the  Society  of  Hellenes  of 
Galatia ;  and  more  attention  was  then  paid  to  the  Greek 
style  of  games.  But  the  Hellenes  whom  they  took  as 
models  and  teachers  were  not  of  Pergamenian  Asia  but 
of  the  Black  Sea  coasts. 

From  the  Romans  they  learned  most  of  the  arts  and 
devices  of  administration.     Their  cities  adopted  the  Greek 

1  See  p.  145  f.  ^  See  section  14. 


Section  ij :  Civilisation  of  Galatia.        145 

name  polls}  but  they  were  Roman  more  than  Greek  in 
type ;  and  the  name  ttoXi?  was  used  only  because  they 
had  Greek  as  their  official  language.  If  they  have  more 
resemblance  to  the  Pontic  than  the  Asian  cities,  we  must 
remember  that  the  Pontic  cities  were  more  Roman  in  type 
than  the  Asian  cities,  where  Hellenism  was  so  old  and 
deep-rooted. 

Under  all  these  foreign  elements,  however,  there  lay  a 
fundamental  substratum  of  true  Celtic  tribal  character  in 
the  family,  the  society,  and  the  town  centre,  as  Mommsen 
and  Mitteis  have  recognised.^  It  is  not  until  about  A.D. 
160  that  it  becomes  justifiable  to  speak  of  Ancyra  and 
Pessinus  as,  in  the  strictest  sense,  cities  of  the  Graeco-Roman 
type :  and  the  change  occurred  even  later  in  Tavium. 
Before  that  time  these  towns  were  rather  Galatic- Roman 
tribal  centres,  using  Greek  as  the  official  language.  That 
character  was,  of  course,  quite  consistent  with  a  high  degree 
of  splendour  and  magnificence  :  there  were  great  towns 
both  in  European  Gallia  ^  and  in  Asiatic  Galatia, 

We  should  be  glad  to  know  more  about  the  actual 
condition  of  those  tribal  centres ;  but  more  exploration  is 
needed  in  order  to  furnish  evidence.  Clearly,  so  long  as 
there  were  only  single  tribal  centres,  the  other  places  known 
by  name  in  the  territory  could  only  be  villages.  But  when 
the  Greek  city  idea  was  adopted  about  A.D.  150-200,  the 
more  important  villages  had  the  opportunity  open  to  them 
of  developing  into  cities. 

M.  Perrot  points  out  one  interesting  fact  about  North 
Galatia,  which  is  characteristic  of  a  country  containing  a 

1  It  appears  thrice  in  C.  I.  G.,  4039  (v.  Perrot,  Expl.  Arch,  de  la  Gal., 
p.  261  f.),  A.D.  15-37,  alongside  of  the  more  common  Three  Nations. 

2  See  quotations  on  p.  131.  ^  Called  Galatia  in  Greek. 

10 


146  Historical  Introduction. 

conquering  aristocracy  ^ — wealth  and  power  fell  to  a  great 
extent  into  the  hands  of  a  few  leading  nobles.  He  traces 
the  signs  of  this  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  Roman 
Province.  Later  than  that  the  subject  passes  beyond  our 
limits. 

^  A  similar  state  of  things  once  existed  in  the  most  "  civilised  " 
part  of  Phrygia,  the  part  most  open  to  conquest :  see  Cities  and  Bish. 
of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  419  f.  The  Tetrapyrgiai  of  the  Phrygian  nobles 
corresponded  to  the  castles  of  the  Galatian  chiefs. 

Note. — Van  Gelder  is  mistaken,  p.  202,  in  taking  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist., 
VII  ID,  56,  as  showing  that  a  Galatian  boy  did  not  speak  Celtic. 
The  boy  was  born  in  Asia,  and  the  marvel  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  so 
closely  resembled  a  boy  bom  in  Gaul,  when  the  two  were  diversarum 
gentium.  The  more  diverse  the  races,  the  greater  the  wonder  and 
the  consequent  price  of  the  pair.  In  1882,  writing  home  from 
southern  Cappadocia,  and  wondering  at  the  beautiful  fair  com- 
plexions of  many  boys  among  the  Christian  families  (lost  as  they 
grew  to  manhood),  I  said  they  were  like  children  in  our  own 
country  (though  Pliny's  story  was  not  then  in  my  mind). 


SECTION  14. 

LANGUAGE  AND  LETTERS  IN  NORTH  GALATIA. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  Gaulish  tribes,  when  they 
entered  the  land  which  took  from  them  the  name  Galatia, 
found  there  a  much  more  numerous  population  amid  which 
they  settled  as  a  ruling  aristocracy,  and  thus  formed  a 
distinct  country  and  government,  recognised  by  the  sur- 
rounding governments  as  one  of  the  powers  among  whom 
Asia  Minor  was  divided. 

At  first  the  two  sections,  which  composed  the  population 
of  this  new  country,  Galatia,  spoke  two  separate  languages. 
The  aristocracy  spoke  a  Celtic  tongue.  Of  the  populace, 
presumably  some  few  could  speak  Greek,  but  Phrygian  was 
the  sole  tongue  generally  known,  and  even  those  who  knew 
Greek  must  also  have  spoken  Phrygian.  There  seems  to 
be  no  reasonable  doubt  on  these  points,  though  no  actual 
evidence  remains  on  the  subject. 

The  problem  is  to  determine  what  was  the  fate  of  these 
languages.  It  is  certain  that  at  last  Greek  came  to  be  the 
one  sole  language  used  in  Galatia  ;  but  the  dates  at  which 
Celtic  and  Phrygian  ceased  to  be  spoken  are  unknown,  and 
form  the  subject  of  the  present  investigation. 

The  subject  has  been  briefly  discussed  by  a  distinguished 
French  scholar  and  traveller,  M.  Georges  Perrot.  But  he 
has  not  taken  into  account  all  the  conditions  of  the  problem, 

(147) 


148  Historical  Introduction. 

and  subsequent  exploration  has  added  considerably  to  the 
scanty  stock  of  evidence  available  to  him.  As  his  authority 
and  arguments  have  convinced  many  recent  scholars — 
though  Mommsen  unhesitatingly  and  decisively  rejects 
them — it  will  be  best  to  begin  by  briefly  stating  his  reasons, 
and  showing  why  they  must  be  pronounced  inadequate  to 
support  his  conclusion,  that  before  the  time  of  Christ  the 
Celtic  language  had  ceased  to  be  spoken  in  Galatia,  and 
Greek  had  become  the  sole  language  of  the  country. 

It  will  be  observed  that  he  leaves  out  of  sight  one  factor. 
He  does  not  take  into  consideration  the  Phrygian  language. 
He  speaks  as  if  the  struggle  had  been  only  between  Greek 
and  Celtic. 

'The  omission  is  due  to  that  singular  prepossession  in 
the  minds  of  almost  all  scholars — except  Mommsen — who 
have  touched  this  subject :  they  all  speak  and  reason  as  if 
Galatia  had  been  inhabited  by  Gauls  only.  If  occasionally 
some  one,  like  Lightfoot,  p.  9,  refers  to  the  Phrygian  element 
in  the  population,  he  forthwith  dismisses  it  again  from  his 
thought  and  his  argument.  Mommsen  alone  declares  posi- 
tively and  emphatically  that  the  Galatian  people  must  be 
regarded  as  a  mixed  race,  in  which  the  tone  and  spirit  was 
given  by  the  Gaulish  element. 

Though  it  cannot  be  proved,  yet  we  must  regard  it  as 
probable,  that  the  Celtic  language  became  the  common 
tongue  of  the  mixed  race.  The  impressionable  Phrygian 
population,  devoid  of  energy,  yielding  readily  to  the  force 
of  circumstances,  accepted  the  language  of  the  conquerors,^ 
just  as  of  old  that  older  race  which  had  been  conquered  by 

1  But  perhaps  on  the  southern  frontier  near  Kinna  Phrygian  was 
still  spoken  in  the  Roman  time  :  one  example  of  the  Phrygian  formula 
(see  below)  occurs  there,  Journ.  of  Hell.  Stud.,  1899,  p.  119,  no.  117. 


Section  /^ ;  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      1 49 


the  Phryges  adopted  the  speech  of  their  rulers.  The 
Phrygians  of  Galatia,  though  far  more  numerous,  contri- 
buted much  less  to  the  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
mixed  race :  they  gave  their  religion  and  their  manual 
labour  in  some  of  the  simpler  and  more  fundamental 
arts  of  life. 

Thus  M.  Perrot's  first  assumption  may  be  accepted  as 
probably  correct.  In  the  century  before  Christ  the  battle 
of  tongues  in  Galatia  was  between  Celtic  and  Greek. 

His  next  argument  is  founded  on  the  supposed  fact  that 
the  ancient  Lydian  and  Phrygian  languages  had  died  out 
before  the  time  of  Strabo,  about  A.D.  19,  so  that  "  in  the 
whole  country  from  the  Sangarios  to  the  sea  nothing  but 
Greek  was  spoken  ".  That  supposition  is  incorrect.  Strabo, 
XIII  4,  17,  is  quoted  as  the  authority;  but  Strabo's  words 
do  not  imply  that.  Strabo  does  not  mention  the  Phrygian 
language :  he  says  that  the  Lydian  language  had  ceased  to 
be  spoken  in  Lydia  and  was  used  only  in  Cibyra,  a  city  in 
the  south-west  corner  of  Phrygia,  which  contained  a  Lydian 
colony. 

Epigraphic  discovery  has  now  proved  that  the  Phrygian 
language  was  known  in  various  parts  of  central  and  eastern 
Phrygia  at  least  as  late  as  the  third  century  after  Christ. 
Some  of  the  Phrygian  inscriptions  of  the  Roman  period 
were  published  before  M.  Perrot  wrote,  but  had  not  yet 
been  identified  as  Phrygian.^  Their  number  has  now  been 
much  increased.  One  is  bilingual,  a  Greek  and  Phrygian 
epitaph.  Two  are  longer,  untranslated  documents.  The 
rest  contain  only  a  concluding  formula  in  Phrygian,  while 

^  See  Phrygian  Inscr.  of  the  Roman  Period  in  Zeitschrift  f.  Vergleich. 
Sprachforsch.,  1887,  p.  381  ff.  Literature  of  the  subject  quoted  by 
Anderson,  Journ.  0/  Hell.  Stud.,  1899  (second  half). 


150  Historical  Introduction. 


the  body  of  the  inscription  is  in  Greek :  the  Phrygian 
formula  is  a  curse  on  the  violator  of  the  grave,  and  there 
seems  to  have  been  an  idea  that  this  appeal  to  Divine 
power  was  more  efficacious  in  the  old  religious  speech. 
The  formula  varies  so  much  as  to  show  that  it  was  expressed 
in  a  living  language,  and  was  not  merely  a  repetition  of  an 
ancient  hieratic  form  of  words. 

Moreover,  the  exceeding  badness  of  the  Greek  in  some 
inscriptions  found  in  Phrygia  proves  that  they  were  written 
by  persons  who  were  almost  utterly  ignorant  of  the  lan- 
guage. They  were  composed  by  uneducated  rustics,  who 
had  only  a  smattering  of  Greek,  and  who  ordinarily  spoke 
in  another  tongue.^ 

In  fact,  it  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  doubt  that  the  native 
languages  of  Phrygia,  Pisidia,  Lycia,  Lycaonia,  Cappadocia,^ 
etc.,  persisted  in  common  use  far  longer  than  was  believed. 
It  was  only  in  the  cities  that  Greek  was  much  used,  while 
the  rustic  population  continued  to  speak  their  own  native 
languages. 

Thus,  in  place  of  the  argument  that,  since  Phrygian  had 
been  forgotten  in  Phrygia  before  A.D.  19,  Celtic  probably 
had  been  forgotten  in  Galatia,  we  must  substitute  the 
exact  opposite.  Since  Phrygian  was  still  spoken  in 
Phrygia  in  the  third  century  after  Christ  or  later,  Celtic 
might  be  expected  to  persist  in  Galatia  at  least  as  long, 
inasmuch  as  Galatia  was  distinctly  less  open  to  Hellenic 
influence  than  Phrygia,  and  the  Galatian  people  had  much 
stronger  national  pride  than  the  Phrygians. 

^  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  131. 

^  See  Mommsen,  Rum.  Gesch.,  V,  pp.  92,  315.  On  Pisidian,  the  present 
writer's  Inscriptions  en  Langue  Pisidienne  in  Revue  des  Univ.  du  Midi, 
1895,  p.  353  ff.     On  Lycaonian,  Acts  XIV  11. 


Section  14 :  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      151 

Again,  it  was  argued  that  no  Galatian  inscriptions  in  the 
Celtic  language  remain,  and  therefore  the  Celtic  language 
could  not  have  been  spoken  in  Galatia. 

This  argument  would  serve  equally  well  to  prove  that 
Greek  was  spoken  universally  in  Isauria,  Lycaonia,  Cappa- 
docia,  Pontus,  etc.  Strabo  says  that  in  Cibyra  four 
languages  were  spoken  in  his  time ;  yet  not  a  trace  of  any 
tongue  except  Greek  occurs  in  the  inscriptions  of  Cibyra. 
Are  we  to  conclude  that  Strabo  was  wrong,  and  that  only 
Greek  was  known  there  ? 

In  truth,  that  line  of  argument  is  founded  on  a  miscon- 
ception as  to  the  facts  of  society  in  Asia  Minor,  and  has 
no  force.  Fashion  was  powerful.  It  was  thought  rude, 
barbarous  and  uncultured  to  use  any  language  but  Greek. 
All  persons  that  had  even  a  smattering  of  Greek  aired  their 
knowledge  of  the  educated  speech.  Moreover,  it  is  highly 
probable  that  nobody  who  was  ignorant  of  Greek  was  able 
to  write  :  those  who  got  any  education  at  all  learned  Greek, 
and  hardly  anybody  in  Asia  Minor  wrote  in  any  language 
except  Greek.  The  thirty  or  forty  late  Phrygian  inscrip- 
tions mentioned  above  are  the  only  exception,  and  they 
have  mostly  a  special  character. 

The  dearth  of  Celtic  inscriptions  in  Galatia  only 
shows  that  Celtic  was  not  the  educated  speech  of  the 
country — a  fact  which  we  know  independently.  Few 
inscriptions  in  Galatia  are  older  than  the  second  century 
after  Christ ;  the  epigraphic  evidence  tends  to  prove  that 
the  mass  of  the  people  were  only  beginning  in  that 
century  to  think  of  engraving  epitaphs  on  the  tombs  of 
their  dead. 

As  to  the  natural  probabilities  of  the  case,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  Roman  influence  was  on  the  side  of  Greek. 


152  Historical  Introduction. 

While  Rome  favoured  the  Galatic  spirit  in  many  respects, 
it  never  seems  to  have  admitted  the  Celtic  tongue  in  offi- 
cial matters.  Greek,  the  language  of  education,  found  full 
official  recognition,  and  Rome  made  no  attempt  to  force 
Latin  on  the  eastern  Provinces ;  but  it  admitted  no  third 
language.  Those  who  wished  to  make  full  use  of  the 
opportunities  of  the  Empire  must  speak  either  Latin  or 
Greek.  All  whose  knowledge  was  confined  to  some  other 
tongue  were  barbarians  and  outsiders.  The  civilisation 
that  Rome  sought  to  impress  on  the  East  was  Graeco- 
Roman ;  and  the  constitution  of  the  Roman  Province 
would  naturally  exert  a  powerful  influence  in  forcing  a 
knowledge  of  Greek  upon  all  that  sought  honours  and 
official  employment,  if  they  did  not  know  it  before- 
hand. 

Even  under  the  kings  Deiotaros  and  Amyntas,  before  the 
Province  was  constituted,  Greek  must  have  been  much  used 
in  diplomacy  and  foreign  affairs.  Greek  at  that  time  filled 
a  place  like  what  French  filled  no  long  time  ago  in  Europe, 
as  the  international  and  diplomatic  tongue.  But  Greek  was 
more  than  that :  it  was  the  speech  of  education  and  of  all 
educated  men  (like  Latin  in  the  Middle  Ages) :  it  was  the 
language  in  whose  literature  almost  all  scientific  and  artistic 
knowledge  was  locked  up.  No  Galatian  could  play  a  part 
in  the  extra-Galatian  world  without  Greek.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Cicero  and  Deiotaros  ^  conversed  in  Greek. 
Coins  struck  in  Galatia  bore  Greek  legends  ;  coins  with 
Celtic  legends  could  never  have  found  international  cur- 
rency in  Asia  Minor  at  that  time,  as  any  numismatist  will 
testify.  In  many  such  ways  Greek  was  a  necessity  in 
Galatia. 

1  See  p.  92. 


Section  14:  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.     153 

But  those  facts  do  not  prove  that  the  Celtic  language  was 
unknown  :  they  prove  nothing  as  regards  the  speech  of  the 
uneducated  mass  of  the  population,  and  they  prove  nothing 
about  home  and  family  intercourse.  They  only  show  that 
Greek  must  have  been  familiar  to  the  few :  they  do  not 
show  that  it  was  used  by  the  many.  The  strong  Celtic 
tinge  in  certain  respects,  which  indubitably  coloured  the 
Galatian  State,  could  hardly  have  maintained  itself  so  long 
amid  the  just  and  even  tenor  of  Roman  imperial  rule,  with- 
out a  national  language  to  support  it. 

We  have  more  than  this  general  presumption  to  trust 
to.  There  is  distinct  evidence  to  prove  that  Celtic  was 
still  spoken  during  the  second  century  in  Galatia.  Both 
Mommsen  and  Mitteis  ^  are  fully  convinced  by  the  evidence 
on  this  point. 

About  the  middle  of  the  second  century  after  Christ 
Pausanias  ^  speaks  of  a  native,  non-Greek  language,  actually 
spoken  in  Galatia :  "  the  shrub  which  the  lonians  and  the 
rest  of  the  Greeks  call  kokkos,  and  which  the  Galatians 
above  Phrygia  call  in  their  native  tongue  hus".  This 
native  tongue  can  only  be  Celtic.  It  is  not  possible  here 
to  plead  that  Pausanius  is  speaking  on  the  authority  of 
some  old  book,  and  passing  off  borrowed  information  about 
the  past  as  his  own  true  knowledge  about  the  present.  A 
few  pages  before  he  mentions  a  fact  which  he  had  learned 
in  that  way  regarding  the  cavalry  of  the  Gaulish  invaders, 
and  there  he  puts  it  in  a  different  way  :  "  this  organisation 
they  called  trimarkisia  in  their  own  tongue  ",^     Moreover, 

^  Mommsen,  Rom.  Gesch.,  V,  p.  314 ;  Mitteis,  Reichsrecht,  etc.,  p.  24. 
^  X  36,  I :  Frazer's  translation  is  quoted :  his  note  endorses  this 
obvious  interpretation. 

3X   19,    II. 


154  Historical  Introduction. 

his  statement  about  the  Galatians  of  Pessinus  ^  is  couched 
in  a  form  suggesting  personal  knowledge  ;  and  he  had  been 
in  the  sanctuary  of  Zeus  at  Ancyra,  I  4,  5. 

A  trace  pointing  to  the  persistence  of  the  Celtic  language 
in  Galatia  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  after 
Christ,  is  found  in  Lucian.^  When  the  false  prophet  Alex- 
ander was  in  repute  at  Abonouteichos  on  the  Pontic  coast, 
persons  came  to  visit  him  from  the  countries  round,  Bithynia, 
Galatia,^  and  Thrace.  Occasionally  questions  were  pro- 
pounded to  him  by  barbarians  in  the  Syrian  or  the  Celtic 
language  :  in  such  cases  he  had  to  wait  until  he  could  find 
some  visitor  able  to  interpret  the  question  to  him,  and 
occasionally  a  considerable  interval  elapsed  between  the 
propounding  of  the  question  and  the  issuing  of  the  reply, 
if  a  translator  was  not  readily  found.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  understand  that  all  questions  in  Celtic  had  to  wait  long 
for  an  interpreter  :  it  was  probably  easier  to  find  an  inter- 
preter in  Celtic  than  in  Syriac.  But  even  if  it  were  some- 
times the  case  that  Celtic  interpreters  were  difficult  to  find, 
that  would  only  prove  that  some  of  the  Galatic  visitors 
could  not  speak  Celtic,  while  others  could.  But  that  might 
happen  naturally.  Most  of  those  who  came  from  Galatia, 
especially  at  first,  would  be  traders  and  travellers,  classes 
of  persons  who  must  have  picked  up  in  a  rough  way  a  good 
deal  of  education.  The  language  of  trade  was,  beyond  all 
question,  Greek  throughout  those  regions  ;  and  those  who 
were  engaged  in  trade  (many,  of  course,  hereditarily),  would 
be  likely  to  be  the  most  thoroughly   Hellenised    of  the 

^  Quoted  on  p.  85. 

"^Alexander  Pseudomantis,  51.     The  attempt  to  explain  away  this 
evidence,  Revue  Celtique,  I,  p.  179  flf,  is  a  failure. 
^  Pontic  intercourse,  see  p.  143. 


Section  14:  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      155 

Galatians.  Thus,  there  might  be  cases  when  an  interpreter 
of  a  Celtic  question  was  not  readily  found  among  Galatian 
merchants  at  Abonouteichos. 

Such  seems  the  natural  explanation.  The  propounders 
of  questions  in  Syrian  or  Celtic  are  called  "  barbarians  "  by 
Lucian ;  but  that  does  not  prove  them  to  have  been  from 
regions  outside  the  Roman  Empire.  Any  one  who  spoke 
any  language  but  Greek  (or  Latin)  was  called  by  the  Greeks 
a  barbarian ;  so,  e.g.,  the  people  of  Malta  are  called  by 
Luke,  although  Malta  had  belonged  to  Rome  for  about  270 
years  when  Luke  visited  it.  Probably  some  of  the  questions 
were  propounded  in  barbarian  tongues  merely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  testing  Alexander's  skill,  for  the  tendency  to  test 
even  that  in  which  one  believes  lies  deep  in  human  nature. 
Hence  we  need  not  suppose  that  those  who  put  questions 
in  Celtic  were  all  ignorant  of  Greek. 

Again,  in  the  fourth  century  the  witness  of  Jerome  is 
emphatic — the  Galatians  spoke  the  universal  language  of 
the  East,  Greek,  but  they  also  spoke  a  dialect  slightly 
varying  from  that  used  in  Gaul  by  the  Treveri.  This  clear 
testimony  by  a  man  who  had  travelled  in  Galatia  and 
among  the  Treveri  cannot  be  twisted  and  perverted  (as 
Lucian  and  Pausanias  are  by  some  writers).  There  is 
therefore  only  one  method  :  when  testimony  is  dead  against 
you,  you  can  always  refuse  to  believe  it.  And  so  Jerome 
is  set  aside,  without  any  reason  given  that  can  stand  a 
moment's  investigation. 

But  the  old  plain  and  simple  method  of  disbelieving 
all  that  contradicts  one's  prepossessions  is  now  becoming 
discredited  as  belonging  to  the  Dark  Age  of  modem 
scholarship.  The  one  argument  which  used  to  be  counted 
sufficient — that  Jerome  was  a  Christian,  and  that  anything 


156  Historical  Introduction. 

stated  in  a  Christian  work  is  suspicious — is  now  no  longer 
implicitly  accepted. 

Mitteis  pronounces  no  decision  on  this  point :  it  is  not 
necessary  for  his  purpose.  Mommsen  accepts  Jerome's 
testimony,  and  justifies  it  by  solid  reasons;  and  the  voice 
of  healthy  historical  criticism  will  assuredly  be  on  his  side. 

That  the  Galatian  people  was  bilingual  for  centuries  is 
an  interesting,  but  well -ascertained  fact.  Compare  the 
Welsh  in  modern  times  after  many  centuries  of  English 
rule. 

Now,  as  to  the  date  when  Greek  spread  most  among 
them,  the  evidence  is  far  from  satisfactory. 

Almost  the  only  evidence  comes  from  the  reception  of 
Greek  names  in  Galatia;  Already  in  the  third  and  second 
centuries  Gauls  with  Greek  names  occur :  Apatourios  B.C. 
223,  Lysimachus  217,  Paidopolites  180.  At  that  time  the 
Gauls  were  serving  as  mercenaries  in  various  camps,  and 
their  leaders  must  have  found  it  convenient  to  use  Greek 
names.  Probably  Apatourios  and  Lysimachus  had  two 
names,  Celtic  and  Greek,  according  to  a  widespread  custom 
in  districts  where  a  smattering  of  Greek  was  spread  :  it 
was  convenient  to  have  a  Greek  name  amid  Greek  surround- 
ings, and  a  native  name  amid  the  surroundings  of  home. 
But  no  evidence  exists,  and  in  fact  Galatia  is  almost  the 
only  country  of  that  kind  in  which  no  explicit  proof  of  the 
use  of  alternative  or  double  names  has  been  found  (though 
in  all  probability  they  were  used). 

This  use  of  Greek  names,  beginning  so  early,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  intermarriages,  might  have  been  expected 
to  have  spread  very  widely  in  the  second  and  first  centuries. 
But,  as  we  saw  on  p.  66,  the  tendency  to  adopt  Greek  ways 
was  checked,  and  a  strong  reaction  of  the  Gaulish  spirit 


Section  14:  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      157 

occurred  in  the  second  century.  The  anti- Hellenic  ten- 
dency was  strengthened  by  the  Mithridatic  Wars  (in  which 
Hellenism  rallied  to  the  Oriental  king  against  Rome  and 
the  Galatian  tribes),  and  by  the  subsequent  Romanisation 
of  Galatia  under  Deiotaros.  The  almost  exclusive  use  of 
Celtic  names  in  the  ruling  families,  B.C.  90-40,  proves  that 
the  national  feeling  was  still  strong  against  Hellenisation. 
Many  names  are  known  in  the  three  tetrarchic  dynasties, 
and  almost  all  are  Celtic.  There  is,  however,  one  notable 
exception. 

Amyntas  bears  a  Greek,  especially  a  Macedonian  name. 
At  this  time  the  great  Galatic  families  seem  to  have  used 
Gaulish  names  almost  exclusively.^  Was  Amyntas,  then, 
a  Greek  ?  ^  This  is  highly  improbable,  because  it  would 
have  been  difficult  for  a  Greek  to  govern  the  Galatian 
aristocracy,  and  Augustus  was  too  politic  to  offend  a  strong 
national  feeling.  Moreover,  Dion  Cassius  calls  him  Amyn- 
tas the  Galatian.^ 

Now,  it  is  probable  that  Amyntas  did  not  belong  to  one 
of  the  great  ruling  families.  He  had  been  secretary  to 
Deiotaros,  and  his  selection  for  that  office  implies  that  he 
had  not  merely  natural  ability,  but  also  considerable  edu- 
cation ;  and  the  educated  classes  always  tended  to  use 
Greek  names.  Very  probably  Amyntas  had  a  Celtic 
name  also ;  but  in  his  relations  with  his  South  Galatian 
subjects  and  with  foreign  nations  he  would  use  the  name 
which  marked  him  as  of  the  educated  class. 

^  Kastor  is  an  exception  (yet  Holder  gives  Castoriacum  as  a  Celtic 
city). 

2  Van  Gelder,  p.  200,  thinks  he  was  a  Greek. 

'  Dion,  L  13,  8,  'A/xui/ras  6  raXar»;s.  Compare  Plutarch,  Amat.  22, 
Tm  VaKaTT)  simply,  when  speaking  of  the  Tetrarch  Sinorix. 


158  Historical  Introduction. 

Similarly,  of  the  four  envoys  sent  by  Deiotaros  to  Rome 
in  B.C.  45  three  bear  Greek  names ;  ^  it  is,  however,  not 
certain  that  all  were  Gauls  ;  the  king  might  have  found 
some  convenient  tools  among  the  Greeks.  His  physician, 
Pheidippos,  was  of  course  a  Greek, 

M.  Perrot,  in  a  lucid  survey  of  the  evidence,  fixes  on  the 
year  A.D.  10  as  about  the  decisive  turn  in  the  tide  of  naming.^ 
Henceforward  Celtic  names  are  exceptional,  and  Greek  or 
Latin  names  are  customary.  On  this  quite  correct  result 
two  remarks  are  to  be  made. 

In  the  first  place,  the  disuse  of  Celtic  names  was  not  so 
complete  as  it  is  said  by  some  writers  to  have  been.  In 
Ancyra,  the  centre  of  Galatian  civilisation,  they  might  be 
expected  to  disappear  most  rapidly  ;  but  even  there  we  find 
in  M.  Perrot's  inscriptions  of  the  second  century  the  follow- 
ing names,  certainly  or  probably  Celtic:^  133  Epona,  123 
[Kau  ?]aros,  Borianus,  Mamus,  Barbillus,  An[.  .  .Jnatus  ; 
and  in  a  rural  district,  151  Masclus.*  In  the  only  rustic 
part  of  Galatia  where  inscriptions  have  been  found  in 
appreciable  number,  the  following  Celtic  names  occur  (all 
probably  second  century  A.D.  or  later) :  Vastex,  Barbollas, 
Meliginna,  Zmerton,  Leitognaos,  Dobedon.  A  short 
inscription  of  Laodiceia  Combusta  ^  (third  or  fourth  century), 
with  the  names  Kat[t]oios  and  Droumamaris,  probably 
shows  a  Celtic  family  in  that  Lycaonian  or  Galatic  city. 
These   specimens   out   of  a    larger    number    known    will 

^  Van  Gelder,  p.  200,  says  that  all  the  names  are  Greek ;  but 
Blesamios  is  obviously  Celtic. 

*  Perrot,  dc  Gal.  Prov.  Rom.,  p.  78,  89  f. 

3  Evidence  in  Holder /)flssMM. 

^  Anderson  in  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1899,  p.  81  fif. 

5  Athen.  MiUheil,  1888,  p.  266. 


Section  i^:  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      159 

suffice :  they  are  taken  from  the  first  two  sources  that 
suggested  themselves. 

Secondly,  it  is  hardly  correct  to  say  as  some  do,  that 
native  names  lingered  far  longer  than  the  native  languages 
in  Asia  Minor.  That  is  true  where  a  language  dies  out 
in  presence  of  the  speech  of  a  more  energetic  section  of  the 
population  (as  Phrygian  did  in  Galatia) :  in  such  cases,  as 
M.  Perrot  says,  on  sait  que  les  noms  propres  survivent  en 
general  aux  noms  communs,  quits  restent  comnie  te  dernier 
vestige  dune  langue  sortie  de  f  usage.  This  rule  is  perhaps 
true  in  a  sense  in  Asia  Minor,  but  it  is  far  from  expressing 
the  whole  truth.  It  is  also  true,  and  a  more  vital  point  in 
the  present  question,  that  proper  names  began  to  be  dis- 
used, and  Greek  names  came  into  wide  use,  centuries  before 
the  native  language  disappeared.  The  very  persons  who 
inscribed  Phrygian  formulae  on  their  graves  ^  bore  Greek, 
not  Phrygian  names. 

The  disappearance  of  names  not  Greek  or  Roman  in 
Asia  Minor  is  too  large  a  topic  for  our  pages :  it  is  only 
part  of  a  much  wider  subject.  The  fact  is  that  at  this 
period  and  throughout  the  Empire,  the  old  national  names 
were  everywhere  discouraged  by  the  prevailing  tone  of 
society,  which  was  Graeco-Roman  in  the  East,  and  Roman 
in  the  West.  It  was  generally  esteemed  barbarous,  rustic, 
the  mark  of  a  mere  clown,  to  bear  a  native  name :  as  the 
comic  poet  of  an  older  time  said  :  "  It  is  a  shame  for  a 
woman  to  have  a  Phrygian  name ".  ^  The  aristocratic 
feeling  of  the  old  Gaulish  families  made  them  cling  for 
a  time  to  the  hereditary  names ;  but  the  fashionable  tone 
was  too  strong  for  them. 

1  See  p.  149  f.  "^  See  p.  30. 


i6o  Historical  Introduction. 

In  the  dearth  of  inscriptions — itself  a  proof  of  illiteracy 
— authorities  for  Galatian  names  are  so  few  that  the  argu- 
ment resting  on  them  is  feeble  ;  but  so  far  as  it  goes  it  is 
that  the  early  Roman  period  was  the  time  when  Celtic 
names  passed  out  of  fashion  ;  and  the  change  heralded  a 
marked  increase  in  the  use  of  the  Greek  language. 

As  to  any  literary  interests  in  Gala^tia,  not  a  sign  is 
quoted  earlier  than  the  fourth  century.  Galatia  like  Cappa- 
docia  is  a  blank  in  literature ;  and  those  are  the  two 
countries  in  which  fewest  cities  (in  the  strict  Greek  sense) 
existed.^ 

The  evidence  is  overwhelming.  About  A.D.  50  Galatia 
was  essentially  un-Hellenic.^  Roman  ideas  were  there  super- 
induced directly  on  a  Galatian  system,  which  had  passed 
through  no  intermediate  stage  of  transformation  to  the 
Hellenic  type.  It  was  only  through  the  gradual  slow 
spread  under  Roman  rule  of  a  uniform  Graeco-Roman 
civilisation  over  the  East  that  Galatia  began  during  the 
second  century  after  Christ  to  assume  a  veneer  of  Hellen- 
ism in  its  later  form. 

Road-building  in  North  Galatia  seems  to  have  begun 
under  Vespasian,  when  Galatia  was  united  to  Cappadocia 
as  a  frontier  and  military  Province.  The  only  Roman 
colony  was  probably  founded  by  Domitian.  It  was  during 
the  first  century  one  of  the  least  civilised  corners  of  the 
Empire,  remote,  difficult  of  access,  with  little  trade,  lying 
apart  from  the  world,  with  a  strongly  marked  character  of 
its  own.  As  Mommsen  with  his  unerring  historic  instinct 
long  ago  recognised,  it  had  become  a  Celtic  island  amid  the 

1  See  p.  135  f ;  Strabo,  p.  537,  says  there  were  only  two  cities  in. 
Cappadocia. 

2  On  the  talk  about  evidence  to  the  contrary,  see  p.  173. 


Section  14:  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      161 

waves  of  the  Oriental  races,  and  remained  so  in  its  internal 
organisation  even  in  the  Roman  Imperial  period.^  ...  In 
spite  of  their  sojourn  of  several  hundred  years  in  Asia 
Minor,  a  deep  gulf  still  separated  these  Occidentals  from 
the  Asiatics  (among  whom  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  must 
for  some  purposes^  be  counted).  The  strong  mutual  dis- 
like that  kept  the  Asiatic  Greeks  and  the  Galatians  apart 
is  evident  from  the  time  of  Mithridates  onwards :  at  that 
time  Galatians  and  Romans  faced  and  conquered  the 
Graeco-Asiatic  reaction. 

The  dislike  of  the  Asiatic  for  the  northern  barbarians 
may  be  paralleled  at  the  present  day  by  the  hatred  of  the 
Turkish  inhabitants  of  the  same  country  for  the  Circassian 
immigrants,  who  resemble  in  many  respects  the  picture 
that  is  drawn  for  us  of  the  Gauls,  free,  proud,  rapacious, 
unruly,  a  terror  to  their  more  peaceful  and  submissive 
neighbours.  Every  traveller  in  Asia  Minor,  who  has  come  to 
know  anything  of  the  feelings  and  life  of  the  people  even 
in  the  most  superficial  way,  learns  that  the  Mohammedan 
Turk  hates  the  Mohammedan  Circassians  far  more  than  he 
dislikes  his  Christian  neighbours  ;  and  his  hatred  is  rooted 
in  fear.     So  the  Gauls  were  hated  in  ancient  Asia  Minor. 

This  hatred  lasted  late ;  and  one  observes  its  effects,  in 
the  fourth  century,  in  the  jealousy  and  contempt  expressed 
for  the  Galatians  by  the  Cappadocians.  Thus  Basil,  Epist. 
207,   I,  speaks  with   marked    innuendo   of  Sabellius   the 

^  Colonia  Julia  Augusta  Felix  Germa  was  not  founded  by 
Augustus  (see  Mommsen's  commentary  on  his  colonies  in  Monu- 
mentum  Ancyr.,  p.  120) :  Domitian  named  it  after  his  beloved  Julia 
Augusta,  see  Revue  Numismatique,  1894,  p.  170. 

^  In  certain  ways,  of  course,  Greeks  are  Occidental  as  contrasted 
with  Asiatics. 

II 


1 62  Historical  Introduction. 

Lydian  and  Marcellus  the  Galatian.  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 
Epist.  20,  mentions  that  the  garden  Vanota,  where  he 
writes,  was  called  by  a  Galatian  name,  but  deserved  a 
name  more  in  accordance  with  its  beauty  than  a  mere 
Galatian  word.  And  the  heretic  Eunomios  complained, 
as  of  an  insult,  that  Basil  had  called  him  a  Galatian, 
whereas  he  was  a  Cappadocian  of  Oltiseris.^ 

In  view  of  these  facts  every  one  who  considers  how  closely 
the  writings  of  Paul  and  the  other  Apostles  (so  far  as  we 
know)  keep  to  actual  life,  how  vivid  and  realistic  are  their 
pictures  of  the  Churches  which  they  address — every  such 
scholar  must  expect  that,  in  a  letter  written  by  Paul  to  a 
group  of  North  Galatian  churches,  there  should  be  found 
touches  which  bring  before  us  the  special  character  and 
position  of  these  churches.  He  must  expect  that  the 
address  would  throw  light  on,  and  receive  illustration  from, 
the  peculiar  position  of  the  Galatians,  so  distinct  and  apart 
from  the  type  and  tone  of  all  the  surrounding  races, 
whether  Greek  or  Anatolian. 

This  expectation  is  not  realised.  On  the  contrary,  there 
are  only  three  points  in  the  Epistle  that  have  ever  been 
alleged  as  signs  of  Gallic  character. 

One  is  the  stock  joke,  that  the  Galatian  Christians 
changed  their  form  of  belief,  and  the  French  are  a  fickle 
people.  It  is  surprising  that  such  a  sane  and  clear-headed 
scholar  as  Lightfoot  should  have  repeated  this  from  his 
predecessors.  In  truth,  he  was  here  misled  by  his  own 
historic  instinct :  he  felt  that,  if  the  North  Galatian  theory 
was  true,  there  must  be  traces  of  Celtic  character  in  the 
Epistle,  and  as  he  would  not  abandon  the  theory  he  must 
find  the  traces. 

*  Greg.  Nyss.  contra  Eunomium,  pp.  259,  a8i. 


Section  14:  Language  and  Letters  in  Galatia.      163 

The  sufficient  and  only  reply  is  to  quote  Luther's  argu- 
ments that  the  Galatians  must  have  been  a  Germanic  race, 
because  the  Germans  are  fickle.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Paul 
nowhere  calls  the  Galatians  fickle,  or  implies  that  their 
change  of  faith  was  caused  by  fickleness:  see  p.  255. 

The  second  is  that  among  the  sins  against  which  Paul 
warns  his  Galatian  correspondents  are  "drunkenness  and 
revellings,"  "strife  and  vainglory,"  and  that  he  charges 
them  with  niggardliness  in  giving  alms  :  it  is  said  that  these 
are  characteristic  vices  of  the  Celtic  character.  They  are 
only  too  characteristic  of  most  nations  and  most  Churches. 
On  their  nature  in  Galatia,  see  p.  450  ff,  458  f. 

The  third  is  that  the  Celtic  people  were  superstitious 
and  "given  over  to  ritual  observances,"  and  Deiotaros 
was  characterised  by  "  extravagant  devotion  to  augury  :  the 
Gauls  in  Galatia  would  find  the  external  rites  of  the  worship 
of  Cybele  attractive  from  their  analogy  to  their  own  Druidic 
ritual,"  though  "  the  mystic  element  in  the  Phrygian  worship 
awoke  no  corresponding  echo  in  the  Gaul ".  Hence,  it  is 
argued,  the  Galatians  were  likely  to  fly  from  Pauline  to 
Judaistic  Christianity. 

One  can  only  marvel  at  this  pedantic  analysis  of  Galatian 
character.  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  point  out  that  the 
best  authorities  consider  Druidism  a  very  late  fact  in  Gallic 
history,  and  that  scholars  who  study  Galatia  observe  that 
not  a  trace  of  Druidic  religion  can  be  discovered  there. 
The  superstition  of  the  Galatians  amounts  to  this,  that  they 
had  adopted  the  religion  of  Asia  Minor  ! 

The  truth  is  that,  though  North  Galatia  had  a  peculiar 
and  strongly  marked  character,  not  the  slightest  reference 
to  its  special  character  can  be  found  in  the  Epistle.  Yet 
the  Epistle  is  full  of  references  to  the  circumstances  and 


164  Histo^Hcal  Introduction. 

everyday  surroundings  of  the  persons  addressed — full  even 
to  a  degree  beyond  Paul's  custom. 

Note. —  It  may  be  here  added  that,  in  the  article  Galatia 
in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  I  have  gone  too  far  in 
admitting  Hellenic  influence  in  North  Galatia,  being  over- 
anxious not  to  colour  favourably  to  my  own  theory  an 
account  which  ought  to  be  strictly  impartial.  But  in  that 
article  the  term  "  Graecised  city,"  applied  to  Ancyra,  is 
intended  to  indicate  "Greek-speaking,"  and  not  "Hellen- 
ised  ". 


SECTION  15. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  NORTH  GALATIA. 

At  what  time  and  from  what  direction  Christianity  was 
introduced  into  North  Galatia  is  uncertain.  I  hope  shortly 
to  discuss  the  subject  of  "  the  Diffusion  of  Christianity  in 
Asia  Minor"  in  a  special  work.  Here  only  the  salient 
features  in  the  evangelisation  of  North  Galatia  can  be 
stated.  It  probably  began  either  from  Bithynia  or  from 
the  Province  Asia,  and  not  from  the  side  of  Syria. 

The  new  religion  was  introduced  in  all  probability  at  an 
early  date :  doubtless  Ancyra  had  been  evangelised  during 
the  first  century  (possibly  even  Pessinus),  But  there  can 
be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  process  began  in  the  great 
provincial  centre,  Ancyra,  just  as  in  Asia  it  began  at 
Ephesus,  and  in  Achaia  at  Corinth.  The  tribal  constitu- 
tion of  the  country  made  Ancyra  the  necessary  centre  for 
at  least  its  own  tribe  ;  and  the  backward  state  of  the  country 
districts  must  have  long  been  a  decided  bar  to  the  progress 
of  the  new  religion. 

Ancyra  and  the  Bithynian  city  Juliopolis  (which  was 
attached  to  Galatia  about  297)  are  the  only  Galatian 
bishoprics  mentioned  earlier  than  325  :  they  alone  appear 
at  the  Ancyran  Council  held  about  314.  The  Ancyran 
Church^  is  first  mentioned  about  A.D.  192  as  having  been 

^  17  Kara  ronov  tKKkrjcria,  the  local  Church  (on  the  phrase  see  Cities 
and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  272  f,  no.  192). 

(165) 


1 66  Historical  Introduction. 

» 

affected  by  Montanism,  but  saved  by  the  writer  of  an  anti- 
Montanist  treatise  quoted  by  Eusebius.  There  was  a  great 
persecution  at  Ancyra  under  Diocletian,  and  some  of  the 
martyrs  who  suffered  there  were  doubtless  brought  from 
other  towns  of  the  Province  for  trial  before  the  governor 
resident  in  Antioch.  Thus,  e.g.^  we  find  that  at  Juliopolis 
in  the  sixth  century  the  martyrs  Plato,  Heuretos  and 
Gemellos  were  peculiarly  venerated  at  Juliopolis.  Of 
these  Plato  is  known  to  have  suffered  at  Ancyra  on  22nd 
July  probably  under  Diocletian,^  and  hence  probably  he 
was  brought  up  from  Juliopolis  for  trial  at  the  metropolis, 
but  continued  to  be  specially  remembered  in  his  own  city. 
The  Acta  of  Theodotus,  a  work  of  high  authority,  contains 
an  interesting  account  of  Diocletian's  persecution,  which 
the  writer  seems  perhaps  to  have  regarded  as  the  first  that 
occurred  there. 

Ancyra  and  Juliopolis,  then,  are  the  two  points  in 
Galatia  or  on  its  borders  where  Christianity  can  be  traced 
earliest.  Now  these  are  two  of  the  points  on  the  short 
road  from  Nikomedia  to  Ancyra  and  the  east — the  line 
which  afterwards  became  famous  and  important  as  the 
"  Pilgrim's  Road ".  ^  As  we  have  seen,^  Galatia  was  in 
specially  close  relations  with  Bithynia  and  Pontus ;  and  the 
extraordinary  strength  of  Christianity  in  that  Province  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  second  century  is  attested  by  the 
famous  despatch  of  Pliny.  Bithynian  Christianity  would 
spread  through  Juliopolis  to  Ancyra  in  the  natural  course 
of  communication. 

The  epigraphic  evidence  about  Christianity  in   Galatia 

1  I  can  find  nothing  about  the  other  two. 

2  Histor.  Geogr.  of  Asia  Minor,  pp.  197,  240. 
'  See  above,  pp.  143,  154. 


Section  i^  :  Influence  of  Christianity  in  Galatia.    167 

will  be  treated  more  thoroughly  in  the  proposed  treatise 
on  the  diffusion  of  that  religion  in  Asia  Minor.  Here  we 
will  say  only  that  the  early  Christian  inscriptions  found  in 
the  **  Added  Land,"  west  of  Lake  Tatta,  are  due  beyond 
doubt  to  the  influence  radiating  from  Iconium  ;  and  that 
in  the  rest  of  North  Galatia  no  early  Christian  inscriptions 
occur  with  the  exception  of  three  or  four  at  Pessinus,  which 
however  are  more  probably  of  the  fourth  than  the  third 
century. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  in  North  Galatia  an  unusually 
large  number  of  late  Christian  inscriptions  in  proportion  to 
the  epigraphic  total. 

Now  the  want  of  early  Christian  inscriptions  in  a  district 
constitutes  no  proof  that  Christianity  was  not  known  there 
in  early  time.  But  the  contrast  between  the  large  number 
of  third  century  Christian  inscriptions  in  Phrygia  ^  and  the 
lack  of  them  in  Galatia  is  remarkable  ;  and  certainly  sug- 
gests that  the  new  religion  had  nothing  like  the  same  hold 
on  Galatia  at  that  time  as  on  Phrygia.  Mr.  J.  G.  C. 
Anderson  expresses  himself  even  more  strongly  as  to  the 
inference  to  be  drawn  from  the  epigraphic  facts  in  Journal 
of  Hellenic  Studies,  1899  (second  part). 

The  evidence  as  to  the  number  of  Jews  in  Galatia  has 
been  much  misrepresented  by  the  North  Galatian  critics. 
For  example,  an  inscription  found  beside  Dorylaion  in  the 
Province  Asia  is  quoted  as  a  proof  of  the  presence  of  Jews 
in  Galatia  ;  ^  and  a  decree  of  Augustus  addressed  to  the 
Koinon  of  the  Province  Asia,  a  copy  of  which  was  ordered 
to  be  kept  in  the  Augusteum  at  Argyre,  is  similarly  quoted 

1  Citiis  and  Bish.  oi  Phrygia,  Ch.  XII,  XVII. 

^  Schiirer,  das  Jild.  Volk  im  Zeitaltcr  J.  C,  2nd  Edition,  I,  p.  690.  It 
shows  a,  geven-braqched  ga,ndlestigk  and  the  name  'Po-avoy, 


1 68  Historical  Introduction. 

as  granting  privileges  to  the  Jews  of  Ancyra.^  With  such 
geography  anything  can  be  proved.  In  the  latter  case  the 
conjectural  alteration  of  the  MSS.  to  read  Ancyra  would 
not  help  the  North  Galatian  Theorists ;  for  it  would  then 
be  necessary  to  understand  that  the  Asian  Ancyra  was 
meant.  Waddington  boldly  reads  Pergamos  for  Argyre,  on 
the  ground  that  there  was  only  one  Augusteum  in  Asia 
when  the  decree  was  issued  (which  is  indubitable).  Momm- 
sen,  while  recognising  that  an  Asian  city  is  meant,  does  not 
propose  any  solution  for  the  unintelligible  Argyre. 

A  few  late  Galatian  inscriptions,  belonging  to  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries,  mention  persons  with  Jewish  names : 
at  Eudoxias  Jacob  the  Deacon  ^  and  Esther,  at  Tavium 
Daniel,  Joannes,  etc.,  elsewhere  Joannes,  Sanbatos,  Thadeus, 
etc. ;  but  all  are  probably  late,  and  may  be  Christian  (or 
Jewish  Christian). 

At  Pessinus  an  inscription  mentioning  a  person  Matatas, 
C.  I.  G.,  4088,  is  regarded  as  Jewish  by  Lightfoot ;  and 
similarly  several  in  which  the  name  Akilas  or  Akylas  is 
used.  We  may  fairly  treat  Matatas  as  a  Jewish  name, 
Mattathias  ;  or,  as  the  copy  is  bad,  we  might  venture  perhaps 
to  change  it  to  Mata[i]as,  i.e.,  Matthaias  ;  but,  even  if  that 
be  the  true  reading,  since  the  wife  of  Mataias  was  named 
Kyrilla,  he  was  more  probably  a  Christian  ^  than  a  Jew 
(unless  he  was  Jewish-Christian).     Akilas  seems  to  have 

^  Schiirer,  op.  cit.,  I,  p.  690,  Lightfoot,  p.  11,  Josephus,  Ant.  Jud., 
XVI  6,  2. 

^  fiPTJfia  etepa)[ZdTov  SJetaKwi/os  Eta»ca)/3  [Mrpi]<»7V0v. 

^  Kyrilla,  though  sometimes  pagan,  favours  Christian  origin  :  hence 
the  other  alteration  Ma[i]atas  is  less  probable.  With  Mataias  com- 
pare Mathas  in  a  Christian  inscription,  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia, 
II,  p.  562, 


Section  i§  :  Infiuence  of  Christianity  in  Galatia.    169 

been  a  Phrygian  name  ;  ^  but  I  think  Lightfoot  may  be 
right  in  regarding  it  as  one  favoured  by  Jews :  we  find 
Jacob  the  son  of  Achilles  at  Oxyrhynchos  in  Egypt,^  and 
Akilas  was  probably  regarded  as  equivalent  to  Achilles. 

Further,  at  Pessinus,  there  occurs  an  inscription  men- 
tioning the  strange  names  Annonios,  Eremaste,  Paith[o]s, 
Momaion,  Deidos;^  M.  Perrot  suggests  that  Annonios 
may  be  the  Hebrew  Ananias,  which  seems  very  probable. 

A  rather  bold  speculation,  which  has  been  advanced  on 
the  strength  of  some  Phrygian  inscriptions,*  treats  a  noble 
family  settled  in  Akmonia  and  in  Ancyra,  bearing  the 
name  Julius  Severus,  as  Jewish.  Members  of  this  and  of 
some  allied  families  boast  themselves  as  "  descendants  of 
kings  and  tetrarchs  ".  The  usual  interpretation  treats  these 
as  Galatian  kings  and  tetrarchs :  but,  according  to  the 
theory  just  mentioned,  they  would  be  Jewish  kings  and 
tetrarchs,  probably  of  the  Herod  family.  But  the  specula- 
tion has  too  slender  foundations  to  be  treated  as  more  than 
an  interesting  hypothesis  at  present ;  and  it  is  ridiculed  by 
Prof.  E.  Schurer  in  his  review  of  the  book  ^  as  merely  a 
groundless  fancy. 

The  Jews  of  North  Galatia  were  immigrants  not  direct 
from  the  East,  but  either  from  South  Galatia  or  from  Asia 
or  from  Bithynia.  No  settlements  of  Jews  are  known  to  have 
been  made  in  North  Galatia  by  the  Greek  kings,  whereas 
large  bodies  of  Jews  were  settled  in  the  cities  along  the 
great  line  of  communication  through  Lycaonia  and  Southern 

^  Histor.  Gebgr.  of  A  sia  Minor,  p.  226. 
2  Grenfell  and  Hunt,  I,  p.  97. 

*  C.  I.  G.,  4087;  Perrot,  Explor.  Arch.,  No.  105. 

*  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  pp.  648  ff,  673. 
^  Theolog.  Literaturztg,  1898. 


170  Historical  Introductiov. 

Phrygia  by  the  Seleucid  kings.  Thus  North  Galatian 
Jewish  settlements  are  later  and  sporadic.  Lightfoot  re- 
cognises this  secondary  origin  of  the  North  Galatian  Jews. 

The  relation  of  North  Galatia  to  the  rest  of  the  Roman 
world  was  changed  in  the  end  of  the  third  century,  when 
Diocletian  about  285  made  Nicomedia,  the  Bithynian 
metropolis,  one  of  the  four  capitals  of  the  Roman  world. 
The  road  system  of  Asia  Minor  had  hitherto  been  planned 
with  a  view  to  communication  with  the  one  imperial  centre, 
Rome  ;  and  North  Galatia  was  then  on  a  by-path.  Hence- 
forth, communication  began  to  run  towards  Nicomedia ; 
and  North  Galatia  was  in  an  important  position.  The 
change  was  intensified  when  Constantinople  was  made  the 
one  great  capital  of  the  Roman  world.  The  road  system 
was  practically  the  same  in  the  East  for  both  those  centres. 

Ancyra  now  lay  on  the  greatest  of  roads.  All  communi- 
cation of  Syria,  Cilicia,  Cappadocia  and  Armenia  with  the 
Imperial  capital  passed  through  it.  The  development  of 
North  Galatia  now  proceeded  with  great  rapidity.  It  became 
one  of  the  most  important  regions  in  the  Eastern  Empire. 
Bishops  of  Ancyra  played  a  great  part  in  many  Church 
questions  from  3 1 2  onwards :  and  the  metropolitan  Bishop 
of  Ancyra  ranked  second  only  to  Caesareia  in  the  Patri- 
archate of  Constantinople.^ 

The  ecclesiastical  system  of  North  Galatia  was  still  very 
backward  even  in  the  fourth  century  ;  and  its  cities,  which 
had  been  slowly  growing  during  the  third  century  out  of 
villages,  had  not  as  a  rule  bishops  of  their  own.  This  is 
made  clear  by  a  comparison  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  of 

^  The  order  of  precedence  was  gradually  becoming  fixed  even  during 
the  fourth  century  ;  but  was  not  strictly  determined  before  the  sixth 
century. 


Section  i^  :  Influence  of  Christianity  in  Galatia.    171 

the  provinces  of  the  south,  where  civilisation  and  cities  had 
been  developed  rapidly  owing  to  their  favourable  position 
on  the  former  lines  of  communication.  But  during  the 
fifth  and  following  centuries  the  number  of  Galatian  cities 
and  bishops  grew  rapidly,  and  was  more  than  doubled.  In 
the  same  time  the  known  bishops  of  Lycaonia  increased 
only  from  fifteen  to  seventeen. 

The  failure  of  its  bishop  in  a  Council  does  not  prove  that 
a  city  was  not  then  a  bishopric.  But  it  was  far  easier  for 
North  Galatian  bishops  to  attend  the  fourth  century 
Councils  of  Ancyra,  Nicaea  and  Constantinople  than  for 
the  Lycaonian  and  Pisidian  bishops.  Yet  the  ecclesiastical 
system  of  Lycaonia  and  Pisidia  was  nearly  complete  at 
those  Councils,  while  that  of  Galatia  was  only  in  an  embryo 
form.     See  pp.  213,  221. 

Even  the  praises  given  so  cordially  to  the  Galatians  by 
the  rhetoricians  of  the  fourth  century — quoted  so  frequently 
as  proofs  of  the  thorough  Hellenisation  of  Galatia — are 
really  proofs  that  the  Hellenic  character  was  of  quite  recent 
growth  in  the  country. 

Themistius  ^  speaks  of  the  Galatians  as  acute  and  clever, 
and  more  docile  than  the  thorough  Hellenes  :  he  evidently 
contrasts  the  Galatians  as  beginners  in  the  higher  Hellenic 
education  with  the  thorough  Greeks  of  Syrian  Antioch  and 
other  cities  where  Greek  learning  was  long  settled.  He 
also  contrasts  the  cities  of  Galatia  with  Antioch  as  smaller 
and  unable  to  vie  with  it. 


^Or.  XXIII  Sopk.,  p.  299  Petavius,  koX  ov  Xeya  to  aarv  tov  'Avtioxov 
owSe  oaois  e»C6i  crvvifii^a  avhpaari  to.  efjLa  (poprla  fxa<rTfvov(n  Koi  irepnroiov- 
fi€voiSy  ouSe  ocrois  iv  TaXaria  rrj  'E\\r]vi8i  •  Koi  at  fxev  iroKeis,  ovx  ovtco 
fjLtydKai.  oiib'  oioi  Trj  fieyioTTj  dfjL<f)i(r^r]T€lv  •  ol  de  avBpes  tore  ort  o^eis  koL 
dyxivoi,  KOI  €vp,ad4<TTfpoi  rStv  ayap  ''EXkrjvatv. 


172  Historical  hitroduction. 

Libanius  frequently  in  his  letters  mentions  his  Galatian 
pupils,  and  like  Themistius  praises  their  diligence  and 
ability.  They  were  good  pupils,  and  therefore  favourites 
with  a  good  teacher.  But  the  majority  of  them  evidently 
belonged  to  Ancyra,  as  might  be  shown  by  a  comparison 
of  the  references  which  he  makes  to  them  :  in  fact,  with 
him  the  word  "  Galatian "  often  seems  really  to  mean 
"  Ancyran  ".  Occasionally  pupils  who  were  not  of  Ancyra 
are  mentioned,  as  e.g.,  in  Epist.  1333.  But  on  the  whole 
Ancyra  stands  for  him  as  representing  Galatia. 

The  only  other  city  of  Galatia  which  he  mentions  ^  is 
Tabia,  Epist.  1000.  Wolff,  in  his  edition,  interprets  that 
letter  as  referring  to  Tabioi,  an  Italian  city  mentioned  by 
Stephanus ;  but  more  probably  it  is  the  Galatian  Tabium 
or  Tavium  that  is  meant.  In  that  letter,  which  is  addressed 
to  Paeoninus,  he  recommends  Phalerius,  who  is  going  to 
settle  in  the  city  as  a  teacher.  Probably,  Libanius  had 
been  asked  to  recommend  a  teacher,  and  sends  Phalerius. 
The  impression  which  the  letter  makes  is  that  Tabia  was 
now  for  the  first  time  aspiring  to  have  its  own  higher  school 
of  rhetoric.  One  thinks  of  the  new  High  School  founded 
at  Como  about  A.D.  102-106,  and  the  teacher  recommended 
by  Tacitus.^ 

The  general  impression  conveyed  by  Themistius  and 
Libanius  is  similar  to  the  idea  conveyed  about  Spain, 
Gaul  and  Africa  by  writers  of  the  first  and  second  cen- 
turies.    The  higher  education  was  new  in  the  country,  and 

^  He  mentions  many  second  or  third  rate  cities  outside  of  Galatia, 
as  Sinope,  Rhossos,  Tyana,  Cucusos,  Cyrrhos,  Berytos,  Apameia, 
Berrhoia,  Emesa,  Elousa,   Bostra,  Doliche,   Petra,  Tyros,  etc. 

2  Pliny,  Epist.  IV  13.  Compare  the  official  Grammaticus  Latinus  at 
Magallum  in  Spain,  C.  I.  L.,  II  2892. 


Section  75  ;  Influence  of  Christianity  in  Galatia.    173 

was  pursued  with  peculiar  intensity  by  fresh  and  ardent 
pupils,  who  formed  a  delightful  contrast  to  the  rather  blas^ 
Greeks  in  the  experience  of  their  professorial  instructors. 

Thus  the  civilisation  and  high  position  which  is  as- 
sociated with  North  Galatia  belongs  specially  to  the 
Christian  period.  Ancyra  the  great  was  the  Christian 
Ancyra.^  We  are  apt  to  forget  how  late  most  of  the 
proofs  of  its  civilisation  are.  An  example  of  this  forget- 
fulness  occurs  in  some  criticisms  which  have  been  made 
on  certain  statements  in  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire 
similar  to  the  preceding  paragraphs.  It  is  necessary  to 
reply  to  those  criticisms  here,  as  they  are  likely  to  be 
repeated. 

Mr.  W.  T.  Arnold  ^  says :  "  I  suspect  that  Professor 
Ramsay  has  overstated  the  Celticism  and  barbarism  of 
Galatia.  I  think  it  probable  that  these  adaptable  Celts 
were  Hellenised  early.  The  term  Gallograecia,  compared 
with  Themistius's  (p.  360)  TaXaria  r^  'EXXrjviSi,^  is  signifi- 
cant. There  is  plenty  of  evidence  as  to  the  early  splendour 
of  Ancyra  CAyxvpa  repirv-q  irafKJiaea-Ta.TT)  TroXt?),  and  the 
facts  collected  by  Perrot  could  easily  be  added  to." 

The  early  splendour  of  Ancyra  was  emphasised  by  me 
as  much  as  by  Mr.  Arnold :  the  words  of  the  book  which 
he  reviews  were  :  "  Ancyra  was  the  capital  of  the  province, 
because  it  was  a  city  of  great  power  and  wealth  (beyond 
Iconium  or  Antioch),"  and  it  is  stated  that  it  contained 
"  a  Greek-speaking  population  to  which  St.  Paul  could 
address  himself".     But  a  city  might  be  splendid  without 

^  The  results  obtained  in  an  intended  work  on  "  The  Diffusion  of 
Christianity  in  Asia  Minor"  must  be  assumed  here. 
^  English  Historical  Review,  1895,  p.  554. 
*  Differently  accented  in  E.  H.  R. 


174  Historical  Introduction. 

being  of  the  Greek  type  in  civilisation  and  spirit.  Mr. 
Arnold  proves  the  early  Hellenisation  of  Galatia  from 
Themistius,  but  Themistius  belongs  to  the  fourth  century ; 
and  I  have  repeatedly  ^  emphasised  the  rapid  fourth  century 
development  of  the  country. 

Moreover,  the  quotation  apparently  is  misunderstood  by 
my  critic  (as  is  clear  when  the  context  is  read) :  it  does 
not  mean,  as  he  takes  it,  "  Galatia  which  is  Hellenic," 
but  in  mere  pedantic  distinction  "  Galatia  in  the  Greek 
world  as  distinguished  from  Galatia  in  the  far  West "  {i.e., 
Gallia).^  So  also  GallogrcBcia  does  not  mean,  as  he  seems 
to  think,  "  Graecised  Gaul  "  ;  it  was  a  Roman  word  adopted 
by  the  Greeks  in  some  rare  instances,^  and  merely  distin- 
guished the  Grecian  from  Transalpine  Gallia.  Probably 
Gallogrceci  was  the  first  formation,  and  from  it  was  derived 
Gallogrcecia.     It  is  grecised   Hellenogalatai,  Diodorus,  V 

32,  5- 

Mr.  Arnold's  other  quotation  dates  from  the  ninth  century. 

Such  is  the  evidence  by  which  he  supports  his  opinion 
that  Galatia  was  Hellenised  much  earlier  than  I  represent. 
His  vague  allusion  to  other  facts  that  might  be  quoted 
implies  only  that  he  believes  them  to  exist,  but  has  not 
got  them  ready.  We  must  assume  that  he  quoted  what 
he  thought  telling  proofs  of  his  view.  The  proofs  that  he 
does  quote  entirely  confirm  my  statements  as  to  the  late- 
ness of  Galatian  civilisation. 

1  First  in  Hisior.  Geogr.  of  Asia  Minor,  pp.  74  ff,  igg  ff,  and  often 
since. 

2  "  Galatia  the  Greek  (not  Galatia  the  Celtic) "  is  probably  the  exact 
thought.  Themistius  speaks  of  Keltoi  on  p.  349  Pet.,  meaning  appar- 
ently the  European  Gauls. 

^Galli,  Gallia,  and  Gracia  are  all  Roman  terms,  never  used  by 
Greeks  except  as  borrowed  from  Latin. 


SECTION  i6. 

LATER  HISTORY  OF  THE  PROVINCE  GALATIA. 

The  end  of  the  reign  of  Nero  marks  a  crisis  in  the  history 
of  the  Province  Galatia.  Hitherto  it  occupied,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  position  of  exceptional  importance  in  the  growth 
of  the  Roman  East ;  and  every  stage  in  its  history  was  one 
of  increase  in  size  and  strengthening  of  the  Roman  character. 
But  from  the  accession  of  Vespasian  onwards  its  history 
was  one  of  continual  decline,  of  waning  size  and  diminish- 
ing importance. 

It  was  probably  in  A.D.  74  that  Vespasian  merged  Galatia 
and  Cappadocia  in  a  single  Province,  That  step  was  due 
to  the  growing  importance  of  Cappadocia,  hitherto  so  little 
regarded  by  Rome  ;  and  the  weight  of  the  joint  government 
lay  in  the  eastern  part,  where  legions  were  stationed  and 
the  problems  of  administration  were  more  pressing.  At 
the  same  time  Vespasian  detached  from  Galatia  almost 
the  whole  of  Pisidia  in  the  strict  sense  (as  distinguished 
from  Pisidian  Phrygia).  That  mountain  country,  once  so 
dangerous  and  unruly,  and  always  troublesome  to  administer 
owing  to  slowness  of  communication  in  the  higher  and 
rougher  parts  of  the  Taurus  mountains,  was  formed  into  a 
Province  along  with  Lycia  and  Pamphylia.^     It  was  practi- 

1  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  308. 
(175) 


176  Historical  Introduction. 

cally  convenient  to  embrace  these  neighbouring  districts 
under  one  administration.  Pisidian  Phrygia,  i.e.,  Apollonia 
and  Antioch  and  the  territory  connected  with  them,  still 
formed  part  of  Galatia. 

The  vast  double  Province  of  Galatia  and  Cappadocia 
continued  about  thirty  years.  It  was  not  considered  as  a 
single  Province,  but  as  a  combination  of  two  separate 
Provinces ;  and  official  usage  designated  it  in  the  plural 
as  Provinciae. 

It  was  probably  in  106,  or  soon  after,  that  Trajan 
again  separated  the  two  parts  of  the  double  Province, 
making  Cappadocia  (with  Lesser  Armenia)  one  of  the  great 
Consular  Provinces  of  the  Empire,  charged  with  the  defence 
of  the  Euphrates  frontier,  while  Galatia  was  a  Praetorian 
command,  no  longer  charged  with  any  foreign  relations,  as 
it  was  now  surrounded  on  every  side  by  other  Provinces.^ 
The  vigour  and  energy  of  Romanising  policy  seems  to 
have  died  out  from  it.  It  was  now  more  straggling  and 
loose  in  its  parts  than  ever.  At  the  same  time  the  old 
national  feeling  in  the  parts  began  to  revive,  Hadrian,  the 
following  Emperor,  seems  to  have  recognised  in  his  general 
policy  that  it  was  not  expedient  to  disregard  so  completely 
as  the  earlier  Roman  organisation  had  done  the  national 
lines  of  demarcation,  by  attempting  to  force  the  Roman 
provincial  unity  on  diverse  races  and  peoples.  In  the 
first  energy  of  Roman  Imperial  policy,  the  attempt  had 
not  seemed  hopeless  ;  but  experience  showed  that  the  causes 
of  diversity  were  too  deep  seated. 

The  history  of  Iconium,  classed  politically  for  centuries 
to  Lycaonia,  yet  always  regarding  itself  as  Phrygian  and 

^  Cilicia  Tracheia  was  made  a  Province  in  72,  whether  by  itself  or 
united  v/ith  some  other  is  uncertain. 


Section  i6 :  Later  History  of  Province  Galatia.     177 

non-Lycaonian,  shows  how  ineradicable  the  feeh'ng  was : 
see  Section  20.. 

The  fact  that  in  one  case  the  plural  form,  Provinciae, 
is  applied  to  the  Galatic  Province  in  its  later  form  under 
Hadrian,  may  be  regarded  as  a  sign  of  this  growing  sense 
of  diversity  in  the  parts. 

The  Province  Galatia  was  still  further  diminished  in  size 
at  some  time  about  A.D.  137,  when  there  was  formed  the 
Triple  Eparchy,  consisting  of  Cilicia,  Isauria  (so  Cilicia 
Tracheia  was  henceforth  designated)  and  Lycaonia.  The 
form  of  name  which  is  always  used,  "  the  Three  Eparchiae," 
indicates  the  new  character  of  Roman  policy.  Three  dis- 
tinct Greek  territories  were  grouped  under  one  governor 
for  convenience.  But  they  were  not  really  unified.  They 
remained  distinct  even  in  some  administrative  respects  :  e.g.^ 
the  Koinon  of  the  Lycaones  was  instituted  for  the  Lycaonian 
cities. 

That  part  of  Lycaonia  which  had  bitherto  belonged  to 
Galatia  was  not  all  taken  from  it  and  included  in  the  new 
Lycaonia  ;  but  it  is  not  possible  to  determine  exactly  the 
bounds,  for  Ptolemy  is  self-contradictory  and  untrustworthy. 
He  excludes  Iconium  from  Galatia  in  its  new  form  ;  and 
if  Iconium  be  excluded,  much  more  must  Lystra,  Derbe 
and  Pisidian  Antioch  be  excluded  ;  ^  yet  in  another  place 
he  includes  Lystra  and  Antioch  in  Galatia,  though  else- 
where he  puts  Antioch  in  the  Province  Pamphylia. 

Again  he  assigns  Isaura  to  the  Province  Galatia,  but 
inscriptions  prove  that  Hadrian  or  Pius  placed  it  in  the 
Triple  Eparchy.  We  have  therefore  no  confidence  as  to 
the  limits ;    but  assuredly  Derbe  was  in  Lycaonia,  while 


^  Such  is  the  view  stated  in  the  Church  in  the  Rom.  Empire,  p.  iii. 

12 


178  Historical  Introduction. 

probably  Iconium,  Antioch,  and  perhaps  Lystra,  were  in 
Galatia. 

About  295  Diocletian  divided  the  Province  Galatia  into 
two  parts.  The  Province  had  always  the  appearance  of 
two  territories  loosely  joined  ;  that  was  caused  by  its  origin 
from  two  distinct  kingdoms  conferred  on  Amyntas.  Dio- 
cletian resolved  the  unity  into  its  two  component  halves 
once  more.  One  part  was  now  called  the  Province  Pisidia, 
and  included  Iconium,  possibly  also  Lystra,  parts  of  Asian 
Phrygia,^  all  Pisidian  Phrygia,  and  the  northern  parts  of 
Pisidia  proper.  The  other  was  called  Galatia,  and  included 
the  "  Added  Land,"  and  a  strip  of  Bithynian  territory  with 
the  city  of  Juliopolis:  it  was  nearly  coextensive  with  the 
Galatia  of  King  Deiotaros. 

On  this  system  Lycaonia  was  divided  between  the  Pro- 
vinces Pisidia,  Galatia  and  Isauria;  and  the  classification 
of  the  Bishops  present  at  the  Council  of  Nicaea  in  325 
shows  that  arrangement.  Thus  a  triple  partition  of  Lyca- 
onia, similar  to  the  old  one,  p.  65,  was  brought  about ;  and 
the  recurrence  of  the  old  division  shows  that  it  was  founded 
on  nature. 

But  in  372  a  new  Province  Lycaonia  was  formed  by 
taking  parts  from  the  Provinces  Galatia,  Isauria  and  Pisidia. 
The  "  Added  Land  "  was  now  restored  to  Lycaonia  ;  and 
so  the  Bishopric  Glavama  or  Ekdaumana,  which  had  been 
reckoned  to  Galatia  at  the  Nicene  Council,  henceforth 
appears  as  a  Lycaonian  see. 

It  was  perhaps  at  this  time  that,  in  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  the  "  Added  Land,"  there  was  added  to  Galatia  a 
part  of 'Asian  Phrygia,  with  the  Bishoprics  Amorion,  Trok- 

*  Especially  the  whole  Dioecesis  Lycaonia  of  Cicero's  time,  p.  106. 


Section  i6 :  Later  History  of  Province  Galatia.     1 79 

nades  and  Orkistos.  Orkistos  belonged  to  the  Province 
Phrygia  in  331,  when  it  petitioned  Constantine  through 
the  Vicarius  of  the  Asian  Dioecesis  ;  and  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible that  Amorion  could  have  been  added  to  Galatia 
until  Orkistos  was  also  transferred.  Hence  the  old 
Phrygian  city  Amorion  was  henceforward  in  official  docu- 
ments styled  a  city  of  Galatia. 

At  some  date  between  386  and  395  Galatia  was  divided 
into  two  Provinces,  Prima  and  Secunda,  with  Ancyra  and 
Pessinus  as  their  respective  capitals.  The  division  marks 
the  growing  importance  of  Galatia  in  the  Eastern  Empire  ; 
and  this  was  still  more  emphatically  shown  when  Justinian 
elevated  the  governor  of  Galatia  Prima  to  the  rank  of  a 
Comes. 

Finally  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighth  century  a  third 
Province  Galatia  was  formed  by  taking  some  Bishoprics 
out  of  Secunda  and  others  from  Phrygia  and  Pisidia :  the 
metropolis  of  this  new  Province  was  Amorion. 

The  details  as  to  these  charges  are  minutely  stated  and 
proved  in  the  Historical  Geography  of  Asia  Minor. 


SECTION   17. 

THE  CITIES  AND  THE  PEOPLES  OF  SOUTH  GALATIA. 

We  have  pointed  out  that  all  attempts  to  find  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians  the  characteristic  features  of  the 
North  Galatian  society  and  life  have  failed. 

Further,  there  are  in  the  Epistle  many  references  to  the 
circumstances  of  family  life,  of  education,  of  inheritance, 
etc.^  They  all  imply  a  settled  order  of  the  Graeco- Asiatic 
type  as  existing  among  the  Galatians.  Those  references 
would  be  misleading  and  barely  intelligible  to  a  people 
among  whom  Roman  civilisation  was  superinduced  directly 
on  Celtic  customs.  They  have  their  proper  effect  only 
among  cities  in  which  there  existed  a  Greek  form  of  law 
and  society,  as  modified  in  some  details  to  suit  the  Asiatic 
subjects  of  the  Greek  kings. 

We  turn  now  to  the  cities  of  South  Galatia,  in  order  to 
see  whether  the  law  which  is  appealed  to  in  the  Epistle  is 
likely  to  have  been  the  law  that  existed  among  them. 

They  are  to  be  compared  with  the  Asian  cities  on  the 
great  highway  from  Ephesus  to  the  East,  and  must  in  fact 
be  classed  with  the  general  body  of  Hellenised  cities  in 
Asia  Minor  generally.  The  whole  of  those  cities  were 
characterised  by  a  uniform  type  of  society,  and,  to  a  great 

1  See  especially  the  summary  in  §  xxxv. 
(180) 


Section  ly :  Cities  and  Peoples  of  South  Galatia.    1 8 1 

extent,  of  law.  They  were  mostly  cities  which  the  Greek 
kings  had  founded  or  remodelled,  with  the  intention  of 
making  them  centres  of  Greek  feeling  and  manners  and 
civilisation  in  an  Oriental  land.  In  founding  them  the 
kings  took  as  models  rather  the  Greek  colonies  of  the 
coast,  Smyrna,  Ephesus,  Miletus,  etc.,  than  the  cities  of 
Greece  proper.  They  planted  in  the  new  cities  not  the 
pure  Hellenism  of  Athens  and  Greece  proper,  but  Hellenic 
institutions  as  they  were  adapted  to  an  Oriental  country. 
Greece  had  conquered  the  East  under  the  leadership  of 
Alexander  the  Great ;  but,  in  conquering,  it  modified  itself 
and  assimilated  some  Oriental  elements. 

Those  Graeco-Anatolian  cities  had  now  passed  under 
the  Roman  rule.  But  the  Romans  did  not  attempt  or 
desire  to  eradicate  the  Greek  manners,  or  to  substitute 
Roman  law  for  Greek,  just  as  they  were  not  hostile  to 
Greek  literature  or  the  Greek  language.  They  left  the 
constitution  of  the  Greek  and  Graeco-Anatolian  cities 
practically  unaltered.  They  allowed  the  Greek  language 
to  be  on  an  equality  with  Latin.  Society,  manners  and 
law  were  hardly  affected  by  the  Roman  conquest.  The 
Romans  were  skilful  administrators,  and  knew  that  it 
would  be  folly  to  begin  their  rule  by  trying  to  destroy  an 
existing  civilisation  and  to  force  Roman  ways  and  language 
on  a  Grecised  people.  In  the  barbarian  western  lands, 
which  were  taken  into  the  Empire,  Roman  manners  and 
language  were  quickly  established,  because  the  only  civi- 
lisation which  the  barbarians  saw  was  Roman.  But,  in  the 
East,  Greek  civilisation  was  nearest  and  most  impressive  ; 
and  Rome  found  in  it  an  ally  rather  than  an  opponent. 

In  process  of  time  Roman  institutions  were  to  some 
degree  adopted  in  the  Graeco-Anatolian    cities  ;    but  that 


lB2  Historical  Introduction. 

process  had  hardly  begun  in  the  time  of  Paul,  and  need  not 
here  be  touched.  Only  in  the  Roman  colonies,  which  were 
planted  in  a  few  cities  of  Southern  Galatia,  were  there 
bodies  of  Roman  citizens,  speaking  Latin,  practising  Roman 
ways,  electing  magistrates  with  Roman  titles,  judged 
according  to  Roman  law.^  These  colonies  were  intended 
by  their  founder,  Augustus,  chiefly  as  garrisons  to  defend 
the  Province  against  attack  from  the  lawless  mountaineers 
of  Taurus,  but  also,  probably,  in  part  as  models  and  centres 
of  a  more  Romanised  system,  from  which  the  surrounding 
cities  might  learn.  But,  as  time  passed,  the  Latin  colonies 
in  Southern  Galatia  were  much  more  affected  by  Greek 
models  than  the  Greek  cities  by  Roman.  The  manners 
and  society  of  even  Colonia  Antiocheia  in  the  time  of  Paul, 
though  superficially  Roman,  were  beyond  doubt  in  many 
ways  fundamentally  Hellenistic.  The  Roman  character 
was  an  exotic  which  would  not  take  root  in  the  East ;  and 
all  that  Rome  could  do  was  to  strengthen  there  the  Greek 
civilisation,  modifying  it  with  some  Roman  elements.  With 
Greek  civilisation  necessarily  went  the  Greek  language. 

Such  was  the  class  of  cities  in  which,  according  to  the 
South  Galatian  theory,  the  "Churches  of  Galatia"  were 
planted. 

In  the  preceding  Sections,  we  have  traced  the  ultimate 
decay  of  the  Province  Galatia  as  a  part  of  the  Roman 
Imperial  policy.  But  the  fact  that  the  policy  of  imposing 
a  Roman  unity  on  the  Province  was  finally  abandoned 
should  not  blind  us  to  the  power  with  which  it  was  at  first 
urged  on  by  the  young  Empire.  Deeper  causes,  which 
were  not  observed  in  the  first  flush  of  enthusiasm  felt  by 

^  See  p.  204  ff. 


Section  ly :  Cities  and  Peoples  of  South  Galatia.    183 

the  Eastern  Provinces  for  the  new  Empire,  came  in  time 
to  the  surface,  and  necessitated  some  modification  of  the 
Imperial  policy.  But  Paul's  work  lay  in  the  early  time ; 
and  it  ought  not  to  be  studied  in  the  light  of  later  circum- 
stances. 

The  truth  must  once  more  be  repeated  that,  in  order  to 
conceive  the  position  of  Central  Asia  Minor  in  the  time  of 
Paul,  we  must  above  all  bear  in  mind  the  vigour  and  energy 
of  the  Roman  administration  in  the  country.  The  Roman 
idea,  i.e.,  the  Province  Galatia  as  a  fact  of  politics  and 
government,  was  being  impressed  with  all  Rome's  organ- 
ising skill  on  the  minds  of  the  people :  and  the  people,  so 
far  as  they  were  not  Celtic  by  descent,  were  of  the  easy 
tempered,  easily  governed  type  that  we  have  described. 

The  Empire  was  popular  in  the  highest  degree  as  the 
giver  of  peace  and  prosperity.  People  were  glad  to  belong 
to  it,  and  they  belonged  to  it  only  in  virtue  of  being  mem- 
bers of  a  Province,  and  entitled  to  be  addressed  by  a  Roman 
official  under  the  name  "  Galaice"  (except  a  few,  who  were 
actually  "  Roman  citizens  ").  Acquaintance  with  the  more 
educated  persons  that  came  from  the  West  implanted  aspira- 
tions after  education  ;  and  education  could  only  be  Graeco- 
Roman.  The  fundamental  fact  in  central  Asia  Minor  at 
that  time  was  this :  to  be  educated,  to  be  progressive,  to 
think,  to  learn,  was  to  be  Romanised  and  Hellenised. 
To  be  a  Phrygian,  was  to  be  rude,  ignorant,  unintelligent, 
slavish. 

Until  that  is  firmly  fixed  in  one's  mind,  it  is  imposs- 
ible to  understand  the  position  of  the  new  religion  in  the 
country,  or  to  properly  appreciate  Paul's  attitude  towards 
the  "Galatians  ". 

The  history  of  the  South  Galatian  cities  is  closely  con- 


184  Historical  Introduction. 

nected  with  the  great  line  of  communication  along  which 
Roman  administration  travelled.  There  were,  in  fact,  at 
least  two  alternative  roads ;  but  their  object  was  the  same, 
viz.,  to  maintain  communication  by  land  between  the  ^gean 
coast  (especially  Ephesus)  and  the  East  (especially  Syria  and 
Cilicia).  One  road  led  through  Derbe,  Iconium  and  Antioch, 
the  other  kept  a  little  further  north  ;  but  both  passed  right 
across  Lycaonia  and  Southern  Phrygia.  A  messenger 
hurrying  from  Cilicia  to  Ephesus  and  Rome  would  take 
the  northern  road  ;  ^  but  those  who  wished  to  trade  or  to 
stop  by  the  way  would  prefer  the  southern. 

Under  the  Greek  kings  of  the  Seleucid  dynasty,  who 
ruled  most  of  the  southern  half  of  Asia  Minor,  that  line  of 
communication  had  been  the  prime  necessity  in  the  main- 
tenance of  their  power.  It  was  an  imperial  highway  in  the 
fullest  sense.  In  the  confused  time  after  B.C.  189,  little 
imperial  need  for  such  a  highway  existed.  But  after  80 
the  great  Province  Cilicia  was  built  up  along  the  highway,^ 
embracing  all  the  districts  that  were  most  conveniently 
administered  as  the  Roman  governor  travelled  along  it. 
When  the  pirates  were  most  dangerous,  all  communication 
between  Rome  and  the  Province  of  Syria  must  have  passed 
along  that  land  route.  As  soon  as  the  Provinces  were 
reorganised  after  the  civil  wars,  B.C.  49-31,  the  route  became 
one  of  the  greatest  arteries  of  the  Empire,  probably  more 
important  than  any  other  outside  of  Italy. 

^  By  the  Gates,  Loulon,  Hyde,  Tyriaion,  Metropolis,  and  then  over 
the  higher  parts  (Acts  XIX  i),  through  Tralla  and  Teira.  Trade 
from  Cappadocia  also  necessarily  took  the  northern  road  by  Savatra, 
Tyriaion,  Metropolis,  then  south  through  Lower  Phrygia  by  Apameia 
and  Laodiceia. 

^  See  section  11. 


Section  //  ;  Cities  and  Peoples  of  South  Galatia.    185 


Further,  throughout  the  Greek  and  Roman  period,  the 
two  roads  formed  a  great  trade-route.  Not  merely  brisk 
traffic  existed  among  the  many  great  cities  on  or  near  the 
hne  of  communication  ;  there  was  also  much  through 
traffic  from  inner  Asia.  Strabo  mentions,  e.g.,  that  a  kind 
of  red  earth  from  Cappadocia,  which  in  early  time  had  been 
brought  to  Greece  by  way  of  Sinope  and  thence  by  ship, 
was  in  later  time  carried  along  the  trade-route  to  Ephesus. 

Such  a  situation  was  most  favourable  for  the  spread  of 
Greek  civilisation.  Trade  was  mainly  conducted  on  Greek 
lines  and  in  the  Greek  tongue.  Wherever  trade  went,  there 
the  Greek  spirit,  the  use  of  Greek  names  and  forms  and 
language  went.  Only  the  cities,  indeed,  were  affected 
thereby  ;  and  the  rustic  districts  and  population  continued 
to  be  simply  Anatolian  in  type. 

The  mere  statement  of  the  general  situation  in  South 
Galatia  shows  how  complete  was  the  contrast  between  it 
and  North  Galatia. 

The  only  peoples  in  South  Galatia  with  whom  we  are 
immediately  concerned  in  the  present  study  are  the  Phry- 
gians and  the  Lycaonians.  The  Phrygians  have  been 
already  described  in  Sections  3-5. 

The  Lycaonians  are  probably  the  representatives  of  the 
unmixed  old  race  which  had  been  conquered  by  the  immi- 
grant Phryges  about  the  tenth  century  B.C.  The  strength 
of  the  conquering  Phryges  was  sufficient  to  carry  them  as 
far  as  Iconium  ;  but  at  that  point  it  was  exhausted,  and 
could  go  no  further.  The  religion  of  Lycaonia,  and  the 
general  character  of  the  people,  are  not  likely  to  have 
differed  much  from  the  description  given  in  Sections  3-5. 
See  Section  20. 

The  native  tongue  was  spoken  in  Lycaonia,  alongside  of 


1 86  Historical  Introduction. 

Greek,  the  educated  speech.  Probably  it  had  once  been 
spoken  all  over  Great  Phrygia  before  that  country  was  sub- 
dued by  the  Phryges.  As  to  the  character  and  affinities  of 
the  Lycaonian  language  nothing  is  known  ;  but  probably 
the  inscriptions  in  "  Hittite  "  symbols  found  near  Tyriaion 
and  Kybistra  and  elsewhere  in  Asia  Minor  will  ultimately 
throw  some  light  on  it. 

The  country  of  Lycaonia  consists  mainly  of  a  vast  dead 
level  plain  ;  but  the  last  outer  hills  and  slopes  of  the  Taurus 
mountains  also  belong  to  it.  In  the  centre  of  the  plain 
rises  Kara-Dagh,  in  a  gently  sloping  rounded  glen  of  which 
are  the  striking  ruins  of  a  Christian  city,  called  the  Thousand- 
and- One -Churches  (Bin-Bir-Kilise)  from  the  twenty  or 
thirty  ruined  churches  that  give  a  unique  character  to  the 
site,  as  a  holy  city  and  a  place  of  pilgrimage — the  latter 
character  being  also  proved  by  a  number  of  graffiti.  At 
one  time  I  was  disposed  to  regard  this  as  the  site  of  Derbe  ; 
but  it  seems  rather  to  be  the  site  of  Barata.  In  that  case,  the 
sanctity  of  the  site  would  be  due  to  St.  John  in  the  Well, 
a  hermit  who  lived  ten  years  in  one  of  the  deep  wells  or 
cisterns,  which  furnish  the  only  drinking  water  in  the  plains 
north  and  east  of  Kara-Dagh.^  This  hermit,  who  had  come 
forth  from  Kybistra  into  the  treeless,  waterless  plains,  was 
buried  by  a  man  of  Barata  (who  was  summoned  for  the 
purpose  by  an  angel).^ 

North-east  from  Kara-Dagh  a  line  of  sharp  conical  hills 
stretches  across  the  level  plain  to  Karadja-Dagh,  which  over- 
hangs the  town  of  Kara-Bunar,  "  Black-Fountain  ".  The 
most  remarkable  of  these  cones  is  one  about  two  miles  south- 

^  Until  one  reaches  Sultan-Khan,  where  there  is  a  strong  flowing 
stream. 

^  Histor.  Geogr.  of  Asia  Minor,  p.  337. 


Section  ij :  Cities  and  Peoples  of  South  Galatia.    187 

east  of  Kara-Bunar,  most  obviously  an  extinct  volcano.  Few 
places  in  the  world  show  such  marked  signs  of  volcanic  action 
as  this.  The  soil  consists  for  miles  of  black  cinders,  which 
look  like  the  remains  from  a  fire  of  yesterday.  To  the 
ancients  such  a  place  must  have  seemed  a  home  of  divine 
subterranean  power  ;  and  here  probably  "  Holy  Hyde," 
the  frontier  city  of  Lycaonia  towards  Cappadocia  and 
Galatia,  is  to  be  sought.  Karadja-Dagh  in  that  case  would 
mark  the  boundary  of  Lycaonia  on  the  north-east.  North 
of  it  begins  the  "  Added  Land  "  of  Galatia,  east  of  it  the 
country  of  Cappadocia. 

On  the  north-west  Strabo  reckons  Laodiceia  Combusta, 
twenty-seven  miles  north  of  Iconium,  as  the  frontier ;  but 
many  extended  Lycaonia  further  west  into  Phrygia  to 
include  also  Tyriaion,  and  the  Romans  included  even 
Philomelion  in  the  Lycaonian  Dioecesis  (which  was  part  of 
the  great  Province  Cilicia  from  80  to  some  time  after  45).^ 

On  the  west  the  broad  belt  of  hilly  country  which 
stretches  north  and  south  about  six  miles  from  Iconium 
contained  the  frontier  between  Pisidia  and  Lycaonia :  but 
from  372  onwards  all  that  country  was  attached  to  Lycaonia. 

The  most  southern  city  of  Lycaonia,  and  in  some  respects 
the  most  important,  was  Laranda,  which  lies  in  a  corner  of 
the  Lycaonian  plain,  stretching  deep  into  the  outer  foot- 
hills of  Taurus.  As  the  centre  from  which  radiate  a  series 
of  roads  across  Taurus  through  Cilicia  Tracheia  to  the 
southern  sea,^  it  had  been  attached  to  the  kingdom  made 

^  See  above,  p.  io6  fF.  Philomelion  was  transferred  to  Asia  either 
by  Antony  or  more  probably  by  Augustus.  Tyriaion  is  reckoned  to 
Galatia  by  Pliny  (if  TfTai'oi/,  TerpaStov,  lirapiov,  are  corruptions  of 
Tvptatoi/),  but  by  Strabo  apparently  to  Asia. 

*  See  above,  p.  125. 


1 88  Historical  Introduction. 

up  of  Tracheiotis  and  Commagene,  which  was  conferred  on 
Antiochus  IV  by  Cah'gula  in  A.D.  37,  and  confirmed  to 
him  by  Claudius  in  41.  Previously,  as  part  of  Amyntas's 
former  realm,  it  had  been  included  in  the  province  Galatia. 
These  explanations,  together  with  the  sketch  of  political 
history  in  sections  7,  10-12,  and  15,  will  render  the  follow- 
ing account  of  Iconium,  Derbe  and  Lystra  more  distinct. 


SECTION   i8. 

THE  JEWS  IN  SOUTH  GALATIA. 

One  influence  on  the  development  of  the  South  Galatian 
cities  must  be  dwelt  upon  as  specially  important  in  the 
religious  point  of  view.  That  is  the  power  of  the  Jewish 
settlers. 

The  Greek  foundations  in  that  region  were  almost  wholly 
of  Seleucid  origin.  In  the  west  and  west-central  parts  of 
Phrygia  there  were  many  Greek  cities  of  Pergamenian 
origin,  but  not  in  the  east.  Lycaonia  had  never  been  a 
practically  effective  part  of  the  Pergamenian  realm  ;  and 
Pisidian  Phrygia  was  actually  declared  free  by  the  Romans 
in  189.^  Those  same  regions  had  to  be  most  strenuously 
maintained  and  strengthened  as  the  backbone  of  the  Seleu- 
cid dominion  in  Asia  Minor. 

The  Jews  were  a  class  of  settlers  or  colonists  ^  especially 
favoured  by  the  Seleucid  kings.  Seleucus  Nicator  granted 
them  the  citizenship  and  equal  rights  with  Macedonians 
and  Greeks,  both  in  his  capital  (Syrian  Antioch)  and  in 
his  new  founded  cities  generally.  In  those  cities,  of  course, 
Macedonians  and  Greeks  constituted  a  species  of  aristo- 

^  Strabo,  p.  577  :  what  he  says  about  Antioch  may  be  applied  to 
the  whole  region.  In  190  it  was  one  of  the  districts  whose  fate  was 
doubtful ;  see  Polybius,  XXII  5,  14. 

2  KoroiKot, 

(189) 


I  go  Historical  Introduction. 

cracy,  with  rights  of  governing  superior  to  those  of  the 
rude  old  native  population  in  the  Seleucid  garrison  cities. 
Seleucus,  therefore,  placed  the  Jews  among  the  "  most 
favoured  colonists "  in  all  his  new  foundations. 

That  does  not  mean  that  new  Jews  might  at  any  time 
go  to  settle  with  such  rights  in  any  of  these  Seleucid  cities. 
Greek  cities  did  not  permit  strangers  to  come  and  settle  as 
citizens  :  strangers  ranked  only  as  "  resident  aliens,"  ^  enjoy- 
ing merely  some  rights  of  commerce  and  personal  safety. 
But  citizenship  was  jealously  guarded,  and  only  in  special 
cases  by  a  special  act  of  the  city  was  a  resident  alien  per- 
mitted to  acquire  it. 

What  Seleucus  Nicator  did  was  to  introduce  bodies  of 
Jews  into  his  cities  generally,  granting  to  these  settlers  the 
highest  class  of  rights  in  the  city  where  they  were  planted. 

No  privileges  would  have  satisfied  Jewish  settlers,  unless 
they  guarded  their  religious  customs  and  peculiarities. 
This  Seleucus  was  careful  to  do.  A  striking  example,  as 
Josephus^  mentions,  was  connected  with  those  distributions 
of  oil  wholly  or  partly  at  state  expense,  which  were  among 
the  privileges  of  citizens  in  Greek  cities :  Jews  would  not 
use  oil  made  by  Gentiles,  and  Seleucus  ordered  that  his 
Jewish  settlers  should  receive  an  equivalent  in  money. 
That  right  was  confirmed  to  them  by  his  successors,  and 
the  Greeks  in  Syrian  Antioch  vainly  attempted  to  have  it 
abolished  by  the  Romans  about  A.D.  68. 

The  whole  body  of  privileges  guaranteed  to  the  Jewish 
settlers  in  the  Seleucid  colonies  seems  to  be  referred  to  in 
an  Apameian  inscription  as  "  the  law  of  the  Jews "?     It 

^  fieroiKOL,  ndpoiKoi.  ^  Ant.  Jud.,  XII  3,  I,  §  lig. 

'  Citus  and  Bisk,  of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  668,  and  No.  399  bis. 


Section  i8 :   The  Jews  in  South  Galatia.      191 

included  some  provision  for  the  proper  safe-guarding  of 
Jewish  graves.  Some  others  may  be  recovered  by  ob- 
serving the  difficulties  which  the  dislike  and  jealousy  of 
their  Greek  fellow-citizens  tended  to  throw  in  their  way 
subsequently. 

The  right  of  safe  and  unimpeded  passage  from  city  to 
city  in  their  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem  was  peculiarly  im- 
portant :  detention  for  even  a  day  or  two  might  frustrate 
the  object  of  their  journey. 

They  also  desired  the  right  of  sending  large  sums  of 
money  to  Jerusalem.  The  cities  regarded  this  as  a  spolia- 
tion of  their  land  for  the  benefit  of  a  foreign  land  ;  and 
resented  the  conduct  of  settlers  who  made  money  and  then 
exported  it.  Moreover,  it  might  seriously  disturb  the 
financial  equilibrium  of  the  state  to  remit  quantities  of 
bullion  out  of  the  country. 

Such  and  many  other  rights  were  guaranteed  by  Seleu- 
cus  Nicator  to  his  Jewish  colonists,  and  confirmed  by  his 
successors.  Antiochus  the  Great,  who  about  B.C.  210-200 
sent  2000  Jewish  families  from  Babylonia  to  strengthen 
his  power  in  the  cities  of  Lydia  and  Phrygia,  was  specially 
emphatic  in  guaranteeing  their  rights  as  well  as  in  granting 
them  lands  ;  and  he  speaks  of  the  strong  liking  which  his 
predecessors  had  entertained  for  the  Jewish  settlers. 

This  exceptionally  favoured  position  explains  why  the 
Seleucid  monarchs,  who  were  hated  in  Palestine  as  the 
abomination,  found  their  Jewish  colonists  loyal  and  de- 
voted. These  colonists  had  nothing  to  depend  on  except 
the  royal  support  and  favour.  They  were  naturally  not 
beloved  by  the  ancient  Phrygian  and  Lycaonian  popula- 
tion, whose  lands  and  position  had  been  to  a  large  extent 
seized  by  the  Seleucid  settlers,  and  they  were  not  popular 


192  Historical  Introduction. 

with  their  fellow-settlers,  who,  like  the  Greeks  in  all  time, 
hated  their  Jewish  rivals  in  trade  and  in  the  royal  favour. 

That  the  Jewish  colonists  acquired  great  power  in 
Lycaonia  and  southern  Phrygia  generally  cannot  reason- 
ably be  doubted.  The  circumstances  of  the  time,  with 
brisk  intercourse  and  a  large  volume  of  trade,  suited  the 
peculiar  Jewish  instinct  for  finance  and  the  management  of 
large  business  operations ;  and  their  favourable  position  in 
the  great  garrison  cities  along  the  trade-routes,  with  special 
rights  even  beyond  their  fellow-citizens,  enabled  them  to 
take  full  advantage  of  their  opportunities. 

Almost  the  only  direct  evidence  that  is  preserved  to  us 
on  the  subject  is  found  in  the  Acts  :  the  Jews  are  repre- 
sented there  as  exercising  great  influence  on  the  magistrates 
in  Antioch,  Iconium  and  Lystra. 

The  natural  probabilities  of  the  case  entirely  confirm  the 
accounts  in  Acts.  The  Jews  must  have  been  rich  ;  and 
the  rich  are  always  powerful,  whether  they  be  popular  or 
unpopular.  But,  beyond  this,  evidence  derived  from  epi- 
graphy or  history  hardly  exists,  because  it  is  difficult  to 
distinguish  the  Greeks  from  the  Jews  in  that  country.  The 
Greek  language  was,  of  course,  indispensable,  and  became 
universal  among  them.  All  Jews  bore  Greek  (or  in  later 
times  Roman)  names  ;  and  it  is  only  in  rare  cases  that 
Jewish  families  can  be  identified.  Recent  discoveries  have 
made  possible  a  beginning  in  this  subject ;  and,  if  explora- 
tion be  continued,  there  is  good  prospect  of  making  progress 
in  it.  But  as  yet  the  attempt  to  work  the  evidence  of 
inscriptions  into  a  sketch  of  the  Jewish  position  in  Southern 
Galatia  and  Phrygia  ^  is  too  speculative  to  be  used  here ; 

1  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  pp.  647  ff,  667  ff. 


Section  i8 :    The  Jews  in  South  Galatia.      193 

and  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  study  of  the  Epistle  to  enter 
on  the  subject.  It  may,  however,  be  said  in  a  word,  that 
the  Jews  are  likely  to  have  exercised  greater  political  power 
among  the  Anatolian  people,  with  their  yielding  and  easily 
moulded  minds,  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Roman  world  ; 
and  future  discovery  will  probably  prove  this,  confirming 
in  part  the  rather  bold  inference  already  made  from  the 
inscriptions. 

Prosperity  was  not  the  atmosphere  most  conducive  to 
strict  religious  purity  among  the  Jews ;  and  the  Phrygian 
Jews  were  no  exception.  In  many  respects  there  was  a 
considerable  relaxation  of  religious  practice  among  them, 
as  is  shown  in  detail  elsewhere.^  Paul  could  confidently 
appeal  to  the  knowledge  of  his  Gentile  converts  that  the 
Jews  did  not  fulfil  the  law. 

But  it  was  not  merely  in  material  power  and  prosperity 
that  the  large  Jewish  element  affected  the  history  of  Phry- 
gia.  It  also  exercised  a  strong  influence  on  thought  and 
religion.  That  is  clearly  shown  in  Acts.  In  Antioch  there 
were  many  devout  proselytes ;  and  the  synagogue  was 
crowded  with  a  Gentile  audience,  XIII  44.  The  lofty 
purity  of  the  Jewish  faith  had  a  powerful  attraction  for  a 
people  like  the  Phrygians.'^  There  was  a  strong  inclination 
to  Judaism  in  the  Phrygian  and  Galatian  cities  before  Paul 
entered  the  country.  Many  of  his  converts  had  certainly 
been  attracted  to  the  synagogue  first,  and  to  Paul  after- 
wards. The  first  attraction,  overpowered  for  a  time  by  the 
second,  was  always  liable  to  revive. 

Moreover,  there  was  a  natural  preference  for  the  more 
Semitic  form  of  Christianity.     This  is  a  very  important 

^  Citus  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  loc.  cit.  :  cp.  Acts  XIX  13. 
^  Compare  on  p.  449  the  picture  of  them  quoted  from  Sozomen. 

13 


194  Historical  Introduction. 

fact.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  hatred,  which 
always  seems  to  exist  between  Jews  and  Greeks,  was 
equally  strong  between  Jews  and  Phrygians  or  Lycaonians. 
That  hatred  is  partly  the  result  of  racial  antipathy,  and 
partly  due  to  the  keen  competition  between  rivals  in  trade 
and  in  methods  of  trading.  Many  modern  stories  are 
current  in  the  country  as  to  the  varying  methods  of  Jew 
and  Greek  ;  and  though  these  are  usually  comic  and  exag- 
gerated, they  point  to  a  deep-seated  difference  of  mental 
attitude  and  nature.  No  one  who  has  come  in  contact 
with  the  humble  Greeks  and  Jews  of  the  country  wonders 
at  the  strong  dislike  between  them  :  education,  of  course, 
tends  to  smooth  away  strong  diversities  and  to  produce  at 
least  a  superficial  similarity,  and  creates  new  habits  of 
mind  and  interest  that  are  much  the  same  in  different 
races. 

But  the  case  was  different  between  Jews  and  Phrygians. 
There  was,  of  course,  at  the  beginning  a  natural  dislike 
among  the  dispossessed  Phrygian  population  for  the  new- 
comers settled  among  them  ;  but  it  was  not  likely  to  survive 
through  generations,  without  some  permanent  cause  to  keep 
it  alive.  Just  as  there  was  no  lasting  hatred  of  the  Greek 
settlers,  but  rather  admiration  and  imitation,  so  it  is  not 
probable  that  the  Phrygians  were  repelled  long  by  the 
Jews. 

There  was  no  strong  racial  antipathy  between  them.  The 
Phrygian  or  the  Lycaonian  was  much  more  Oriental  in 
type  than  the  Greek.  Habit  and  surroundings  fostered 
in  them  the  character  that  is  least  like  the  Western  bar- 
barian and  most  like  the  Asiatic.  As  you  gaze  on  the 
gorgeously  dressed  Lycaonian  king  who  is  represented  on 
the  ancient  rock-sculpture  at  Ibriz  in  the  act  of  worshipping 


Section  i8 :    The  Jews  in  South  Galatia.      195 

the  simple  rustic  God,  the  giver  of  corn  and  wine,  you 
recognise  an  almost  typical  Semite;  and  the  peasant  who 
acts  as  your  guide  wears  the  same  style  and  shape  of  dress 
as  the  husbandman  god  (except  the  modern  fez),  and  is  in 
many  cases  strikingly  like  him  in  type.  The  type  which 
the  Anatolian  plateau  develops  is  markedly  Asiatic  ;  and 
there  is  no  natural  antipathy  between  it  and  the  Semite. 
So  in  modern  times  the  Jew  has  been  on  far  more  friendly 
terms  with  the  Turkish  peasantry  than  he  has  been  with 
the  Greeks,  and  better  treated  before  Turkish  law  than 
before  the  law  and  government  of  most  European  countries. 

Again,  there  was  little  of  the  keen  commercial  rivalry 
between  Phrygian  and  Jew  that  there  was  between  Greek 
and  Jew  :  the  Anatolian  nature  has  always  been  far  too 
easy  going  and  easy  tempered. 

At  the  present  day,  almost  exactly  the  same  problem  is 
presented  in  the  country  as  in  the  centuries  immediately 
before  and  after  Christ.  The  so-called  Osmanli  Turk 
shows  fundamentally  the  old  Anatolian  type :  though  the 
gravity  and  restraint  and  dignity  of  Mohammedanism  in 
common  life  have  been  substituted  for  the  enthusiastic 
licence  of  the  old  Phrygian  ritual — with  a  certain  corre- 
sponding change  in  the  character  of  the  men.  The  Greek 
of  the  coast  lands  is  essentially  of  the  old  Greek  type,  with 
certain  slight  changes  caused  by  Christianity. 

There  is  no  better  preparation  for  understanding  on  their 
historical  side  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  who  repre- 
sent the  type  of  the  Anatolian  plateau,  and  the  Epistles  to 
the  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  who  represent  the  Greek 
of  the  coast  lands,  than  a  study  of  the  two  contrasted 
modern  types. 

Asia  Minor  is  the  Debatable  Land,  in  which  Orientalism 


196  Historical  Introduction. 

and  Occidentalism  have  often  striven  for  mastery.  Under 
the  early  Roman  Empire,  and  again  at  the  present  day,  a 
vigorous  Occidentalism  is  striving,  apparently  with  every 
prospect  of  success,  to  subdue  the  plateau.  The  ground- 
stock  on  the  plateau  is  not  antipathetic  to  Western  organi- 
sation and  order,  though  it  is  strongly  antipathetic  to  the 
Western  barbarian.  But  it  is  far  more  sympathetic  to 
Orientalism  ;  and  whenever  it  seems  to  have  assimilated 
Occidental  thoughts  and  ways,  it  tends  to  remould  them 
to  an  Oriental  form.  The  deep-lying  Orientalism  always 
recurs.  The  Western  conqueror  triumphs,  and  before  he  is 
aware,  when  he  turns  his  back  for  a  moment,  his  results 
have  melted  into  the  old  type.     See  p.  449. 

Such  was  Paul's  experience.  Such  is  his  complaint. 
"  You  are  removing  so  rapidly  "  (he  writes  to  them)  back 
to  the  old  type,  "you  are  turning  back  again  to  the  old 
rudiments  "  (I  6,  IV  9).  His  words  are  exactly  the  same 
that  unconsciously  the  historical  student  finds  himself  em- 
ploying about  the  people  in  other  relations. 

Such  was  the  experience  of  every  century  in  the  Christian 
time.  Every  heresy  in  Anatolia  recurred  to  a  more  Orien- 
tal and  specially  Judaistic  type  ;  and  at  last  Phrygia  and 
Galatia  reverted  to  Semitic  Mohammedanism.  In  some 
parts  of  Asia  Minor  a  larger  proportion  of  the  population 
preserved  their  Christian  faith  ;  but  in  Phrygia  there  were 
hardly  more  than  four  or  five  scattered  remnants  in  small 
villages  who  remained  true  to  Christianity  throughout  the 
Turkish  government.  There  are  Zille,  a  village  beside 
Iconium,  Bermenda  beside  Philomelion,  Khonas  close  to 
Colossae,  and  a  small  body  in  Apollonia-Sozopolis  :  these 
preserve  an  unbroken  Christian  tradition.  But  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  Phrygia  can  show  a  fifth. 


SECTION   19. 

PISIDIAN  ANTIOCH. 

On  a  hill  about  one  and  a  half  miles  east  from  the 
modern  town  of  Yalowatch,  on  the  outermost  slopes  of 
the  lofty  massive  ridge  of  Sultan-Dagh,  the  backbone  of 
Phrygia,  was  an  ancient  sanctuary  of  the  Phrygian  religion, 
which  was  the  ruling  priestly  centre  for  the  whole  uplands 
north-east  from  the  Limnai,  and  for  the  plain  of  the  An- 
thios,  which  flows  into  the  southern  basin  of  the  Limnai, 
the  great  double  lake  now  called  Hoiran-Geul  and  Egerdir- 
Geul.  On  the  upper  waters  of  the  Anthios  stood  that 
ancient  sanctuary,  from  whence  the  Phrygian  priests,  inter- 
preting the  Divine  will,  ruled  the  country  and  the  rude 
Phrygian  population  around.  Antioch  is  about  3600  feet 
above  sea-level,  Yalowatch  3460,  the  Limnai  3030. 

Strabo  describes  the  geographical  features  of  the  country 
on  the  side  flanks  of  Sultan-Dagh.  He  had  seen  it  as  he 
travelled  westwards  along  the  great  trade  route  through 
Tyriaion  and  Philomelion  ;  and  the  enormous  mass  of  that 
long  ridge  impressed  his  memory  and  is  well  described  by 
the  phrase  which  he  uses,  "  a  backbone  of  mountains  ".^ 
He  errs,  however,  in  saying  that  it  stretched  from  east  to 
west :  it  really  stretches   south-east  to  north-west.     This 

^  Strabo,  p.  577,  npuvr^v  Tiva  pdxtv.  On  his  route  compare  Cities  and 
Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  pp.  86,  170  ;  II,  p.  398. 

(197) 


198  Historical  Introduction. 

error  was  not  unnatural  in  a  traveller  whose  route  was  from 
east  to  west,  and  who  did  not  properly  realise  how  much 
his  course  turned  towards  the  north  at  Philomelion  in  order 
to  get  round  the  end  of  the  mighty  mountain. 

Strabo  saw  only  the  great  plain  on  the  north-east  side  of 
the  mountain  backbone,  the  long  level  stretch  of  Phrygia 
Paroreios.  He  was  told  that  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
ridge  lay  Antioch  in  another  plain ;  and  he  pictured  to 
himself  the  plain  which  Antioch  commanded  as  similar  to 
the  plain  that  he  saw  before  him.  But  in  this  also  he 
was  not  strictly  correct :  the  country  that  stretches  in  front 
of  Antioch,  as  one  looks  down  towards  the  Limnai,  is  of 
far  rougher  character,  rolling  uplands  backed  by  moun- 
tains. 

The  ancient  name  of  that  Phrygian  sanctuary  is  un- 
known. A  new  era  began  in  its  history  when  a  Greek 
garrison  city  was  planted  there  on  the  lands  of  the  temple. 

Antioch  was  called  by  the  Romans  a  Pisidian  city  ;  and 
in  Latin  usage  the  name  Pisidia  was  applied  almost  in  a 
political  sense  to  the  country  in  which  Augustus  founded 
his  Coloniae  for  defence  against  the  Pisidian  mountaineers.^ 
So  in  later  times  Antioch  became  the  capital  of  the  Pro- 
vince Pisidia. 

But  the  old  national  idea  and  the  geographical  view 
agreed  that  Antioch  was  a  Phrygian  city,  in  the  district 
called  Pisidian  or  Pisidic  Phrygia,  bordering  on  Pisidia 
proper.^  Strabo  puts  this  quite  clearly  ;  and  in  an  epigram 
found  in  the  city,  it  is  called  Mygdonian,  i.e.,  Phrygian,  for 
Mygdon  was  one  of  the  old   Phrygian  heroes  mentioned  in 

^  Monum.  Ancyr.,  V  36  ;   Pliny,  V  94. 
^  See  p.  106. 


Section  ig  :  Pisidian  Antioch.  1 99 

the  Iliad.^  The  first  line  of  the  epigram,^  which  has  not 
been  properly  understood,  is  to  be  read  thus  : — 

Tov'^e  ae  MvyBoviTj  Aiovvatov  '-4j/[Tto^eta]. 

The  accompanying  prose  inscription  states  that  the  metro- 
polis Antioch  honoured  with  a  statue  Aur.  Dionysios,  a 
centurion  charged  with  the  oversight  of  the  region  which 
had  its  centre  in  Antioch.  In  the  mutilated  epigram  the 
city  addresses  him  :  "  Thee,  Dionysios  standing  here  (in 
marble),  Phrygian  Antioch  (has  exalted  in  honour)  ". 

Antioch  was  founded  by  one  of  the  Seleucid  kings  who 
ruled  Syria  and  the  southern  half  of  Asia  Minor.  Of  the 
date  and  circumstances  nothing  is  recorded  ;  but  the  strong 
and  important  position  is  likely  to  have  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  first  monarch  Seleucus  Nicator,  B.C.  301-280. 
This  may  probably  have  been  one  of  the  sixteen  Antiochs 
which  he  founded  and  named  after  his  father. 

The  population  of  the  new  city  consisted,  doubtless,  partly 
of  the  old  people,  who  may  have  probably  constituted  one 
or  more  of  its  tribes,^  and  partly  of  settlers  planted  here  by 
the  founder.  The  settlers  must  have  constituted  several  of 
the  city  tribes  ;  but  nothing  is  recorded  as  to  their  former 
homes,  or  as  to  the  names  and  number  of  the  tribes.  The 
refoundation  as  a  Roman  Colonia  has  obliterated  the 
memory  of  the  Greek  city. 

Analogy  may  make  us  confident  that  the  most  honoured 
tribe  was  called  Antiochis,  and  probably  contained  Mace- 

^  See  pp.  20,  27.  A  reference  to  Mygdonia  Antiocheia  Nisibis  is 
impossible. 

"^  Sterrett,  Epigr.  Journey,  No.  93  (but  keep  the  reading  on  the 
stone  peyewvapiov). 

'  All  these  Greek  cities  in  Phrygia  were  divided  into  tribes,  <f)vXaL 


200  Historical  Introduction. 

donian  settlers  only :  ^  so  at  Laodiceia  there  was  a  tribe 
Laodikis,  and  at  Carian  Antioch  a  tribe  Antiochis. 

It  is  practically  certain  that  part  of  the  new  settlers 
were  Jews:  see  Section  i8.  The  Jews  of  Antioch  may 
very  probably  have  formed  one  of  the  city  tribes. 

Another  tribe  may  have  taken  a  name  from  the  Phrygian 
cultus  in  the  city,  and  contained  the  old  population. 

While  the  city  Antioch  was  thus  a  thoroughly  Hellenised 
city,  Greek-speaking,  organised  in  the  regular  Hellenistic 
style,  and  administering  by  its  own  elected  magistrates  the 
usual  style  of  Hellenistic  Seleucid  law,  the  country  round 
continued  its  Phrygian  course  of  life,  hardly  affected  by 
the  Greek  city,  divided  according  to  villages  on  the  Ana- 
tolian system,^  and  probably  for  a  long  time  speaking  only 
Phrygian.  A  great  series  of  inscriptions,  belonging  to  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  after  Christ,  shows  that  this 
country,  within  a  few  miles  of  Antioch  to  the  north-west 
and  subject  to  its  authority,  still  preserved  much  of  the  old 
Phrygian  religious  organisation,  uniting  under  the  patronage 
of  the  Great  Artemis  in  a  society,  whose  enigmatic  name 
probably  means  "  the  friends  of  the  secret  sign,"  a  sort  of 
body  of  freemasons  recognising  one  another  by  a  sign.^ 
There  seems  even  then  to  have  been  little  relation  between 
these  rustics  or  pagani  and  the  men  of  the  city ;  all  the 
"  friends "  (hundreds  in  number)  are  designated  by  their 
village,  with  the  exception  of  one  solitary  Antiochian. 

^  If  Seleucus  was  the  founder,  another  tribe  doubtless  was  called 
Seleucis. 

2  See  p.  39  f. 

^  TfKfiap :  ^4voi  TfKfiopfioi.  On  these  religious  societies  see  Cities 
and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  96  f,  II,  pp.  359,  630,  f ;  the  inscriptions  in 
5terrett,  Wolfe  Expedition ;  also  Histor.  Geogr.  of  Asia  Minor,  p.  411  ff. 


Section  ig:  Pisidian  Antioch.  201 

It  is  important  to  observe  that  those  un-Hellenised 
pagani  were  still  really  Pagans  in  the  third  century. 
Christianity  had  here  hardly  affected  the  rustic  population, 
and  was  confined  to  the  educated  citizens. 

Antioch  boasted  it-self  as  a  colony  from  Magnesia  on  the 
Maeander.  The  meaning  of  this  statement  is  uncertain. 
It  was  fashionable  in  the  Hellenised  Phrygian  cities  to 
have  foundation  legends  involving  some  Greek  connection  ; 
but  these  are  as  a  rule  far  from  trustworthy.  In  this  case, 
however,  the  assertion  of  Strabo  lends  strength  to  the  story  ; 
and  possibly  a  body  of  settlers  from  Magnesia  may  have 
been  brought  by  the  Seleucid  founder ;  if  so,  they  would 
probably  form  one  of  the  city  tribes,  which  might  bear  a 
name  suggestive  of  the  origin.^  Certainly  the  story  of  the 
Magnesian  colony  was  current  in  the  city,  as  appears  from 
an  epigram  found  in  Rome,  which  has  been  much  mis- 
represented by  editors.  The  writer  of  this  epigram  calls 
himself  a  Magnesian  of  Phrygia.  Clearly  he  must  mean 
Antioch,  for  he  speaks  of  the  Anthian  Plain,  i.e.,  the  valley 
of  the  Anthios,  mentioned  on  coins  of  the  city  and  in  Pliny. 

Mayi/j/f  eV  ^pvyirjs  •   'S.Kvdit]  8e  /le  napdevos  Ainq 
eTp€(ji    eXaiTjpan  fi    hv6'ia>i  iv  TT(bl<t>i, 
TToKifTKiov  XiTrdiTa  Mayi/ijrtoi'  ttoKlu.^ 

"  I  am  a  Magnesian  from  Phrygia ;  and  an  unwedded 
damsel,  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  Scythian  goddess, 
nurtured   me  in   the   olive-bearing  plain    of  the  Anthios, 

1  If  the  story  relates  to  a  mythic  foundation  in  prehistoric  times, 
it  may  be  dismissed  as  an  invention. 

■^  Kaibel,  Inscr.  Grace.  Ital.,  No.  933,  reads  MavOiatL  in  1.  2.  irapOtvos 
dyvTj  has  been  conjectured,  probably  rightly,  but  Kaibel  rejects  it 
because  he  has  not  found  Scythia  as  a  woman's  name  (a  meaningless 
reason).  He  takes  Magnes  as  a  personal  name,  and  gets  no  sense 
from  this  remarkable  inscription. 


202  Historical  Introduction. 

me  who  have  left  the  deep-shaded  city  of  the  Magnetes." 
It  is  uncertain  whether  the  epigram  was  longer. 

The  Anatolian  custom  described  on  p.  40  is  here  alluded 
to.  Evidently  the  epithet  Parthenos  was  given  to  the 
goddess  in  this  district :  she  was  the  Great  Goddess  Arte- 
mis of  the  Limnai,  into  which  the  river  Anthius  flows  ;  and 
she  was  succeeded  there  in  Christian  times  by  the  Virgin 
Theotokos.  The  epithet  Parthenos  in  the  cultus  of  Anatolia 
had  not  the  sense  which  we  attribute  to  the  word  "  virgin  "  : 
it  merely  indicated  that  the  goddess  and  her  devotees  were 
not  bound  by  the  rite  of  marriage.  She  is  terijied 
"  Scythian,"  as  the  Artemis  whose  seat  was  in  the  Tauric 
Chersonese  (the  Crimea) ;  she  was  also  called  Tauro  or 
Tauropolos.^ 

The  character  which  this  epigram  reveals  in  the  Antiochian 
cultus  is  exactly  what  belonged  everywhere  to  the  native 
religion  of  Phrygia  ;  but  it  is  important  to  have  an  express 
confirmation  of  it. 

In  the  exoteric  view,  as  shown  in  inscriptions,  the  Great 
God  in  Antioch  was  Men  Askainos,^  who  was  usually 
expressed  in  Greek  form  as  the  "  Very  Manifest  God 
Dionysos,"  and  in  Latin  as  Aesculapius.  These  identifica- 
tions with  Western  deities  express  one  or  other  of  the 
many  sides  in  the  complete  Phrygian  idea  of  the  God,  as 
the  giver  of  wine  and  corn,  the  king,  the  healer,  and  so  on. 
The  simple  translation  of  the  Phrygian  name,  viz..  Men  in 
Greek  and  Luna  in  Latin,  was  also  used  in  the  inscriptions.^ 

'  Artemis  Tauropolos  at  Metropolis,  not  far  away. 

''■  Such  is  Waddington's  highly  probable  correction  of  Strabo's 
reading  Arkaios. 

^  C.  I.  L.,  Ill  6829,  Sterrett,  Epigr.Journ.,  No.  135.  These  are  really 
mistranslations :  the  Phrygian  Men  or  Manes  was  not  the  Moon, 
Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  636. 


Section  ig :  Pisidian  Antioch.  203 

The  goddess  is  never  mentioned  in  inscriptions  of  the 
Hellenised  city,  where  the  Phrygian  element  remained  more 
mystic  and  esoteric,  as  is  stated  on  p.  42.  But  in  inscrip- 
tions of  the  less  Hellenised  neighbourhood,  she  alone  is 
named,  and  the  male  god  is  not  made  so  prominent. 

The  first  event  known  in  the  history  of  Antioch  belongs 
to  the  year  189,  when  the  Romans  made  it  a  free  city, 
destroying  the  Seleucid  power,  but  not  subjecting  the  city 
to  the  rule  of  the  Pergamenian  king  Eumenes.  Possibly, 
their  jealousy  made  them  unwilling  ^  to  trust  him  with  that 
strong  fortress  and  the  command  of  one  of  the  two  great 
Eastern  routes. 

From  189  to  the  formation  of  the  Province  of  Cilicia  in 
80,  nothing  is  known  as  to  the  fate  of  Antioch.  Sheltered 
behind  the  mountains,  it  was  protected  as  well  as  possible 
against  the  storms  of  that  troubled  time.  Presumably  it 
remained  a  free  city  for  that  whole  century,  a  city  governing 
itself  by  its  own  elected  magistrates  in  the  midst  of  a 
Phrygian  land,  governing  itself  after  the  Greek  fashion,  and 
called  a  Greek  city,  but  by  no  means  a  city  of  Greeks.  Its 
story  during  that  century  would  be  an  interesting  one  ;  but 
we  must  wait  for  further  exploration  and  excavation. 

In  39  Antioch  and  the  rest  of  Pisidian  Phrygia  was 
made  into  a  kingdom  and  given  to  Amyntas ;  and  in  25  it 
came  back  into  Roman  possession  as  part  of  the  Province 
Galatia. 

At  some  time  before  B.C.  6  Augustus  planted  a  Colonia — 
apparently  chiefly,  or  entirely,  of  veterans  of  the  Legion  V 
Alauda — in  Antioch,  which  now  received  a  new  constitution 
and  a  new  name,  as  Colonia  Caesareia  Antiocheia.     The 

^  See  above,  p.  61. 


204  Historical  Introduction. 

population  of  the  old  Greek  city  still  continued  to  dwell  in 
it ;  but  they  now  ranked  only  as  dwellers  {incolae)  alongside 
of  the  privileged  Coloni. 

Instead  of  tribes,  the  Colonia  was  divided  into  Vici,  as  a 
Roman  city.  The  modern  town  of  Yalowatch  is  divided 
into  twelve  quarters,  and  Professor  Sterrett  conjectures, 
ingeniously  and  probably,  that  the  division  is  an  inheritance 
from  antiquity.^  It  may  be  added  that  the  supposed  twelve 
Vici  were  probably  a  Romanisation  of  the  older  twelve 
Greek  city  tribes. 

The  names  of  only  six  Vici  are  known,  Tuscus,  Cermalus, 
Aedilicius,  Patricius^  Velabrus,  Salutaris.  The  last  of 
these  is  probably  an  acknowledgment  of  the  old  Phrygian 
cultus  in  Antioch,  for  the  national  God  was  now  commonly 
called  Aesculapius.  The  other  names  show  a  strongly 
marked  Roman  character. 

Certain  rights,  summed  up  as  Jus  Italicum,  were  granted 
to  the  Colonia,  which  consisted  mainly  of  veterans  of  the 
Fifth  Legion  Alauda.  Those  rights — which  included  free- 
dom from  direct  taxation,  freedom  of  constitutional 
government,  and  the  right  to  hold  and  convey  land  accord- 
ing to  Roman  custom — of  course,  belonged  in  full  only  to 
the  coloni,  and  not  to  the  incolae,  the  old  inhabitants,  who 
still  constituted  the  vast  majority  of  the  population.  Only 
persons  who  possessed  as  individuals  the  Roman  citizenship 
could  rank  as  Coloni,  and  possess  the  full  rights  pertaining 
to  that  position. 

No  evidence  remains  on  which  to  found  an  account  ot 
the  precise  position  and  rights  of  the  non-Roman  population 
of  Antioch.     We  must  for  the  present  rernain  in  ignorance, 

^  Turkish  mahale  translates  vicus. 
*  PATRICVS  in  Sterrett's  copy. 


Section  ig :  Pisidian  Antioch.  205 

and  hope  for  increase  of  knowledge  through  exploration 
and  excavation.     But  some  general  principles  are  certain. 

In  a  general  way,  the  non-Roman  members  of  the  Pro- 
vince were  in  a  state,  so  to  say,  of  pupilage  and  training  for 
the  high  position  of  Roman  citizens.  The  goal  of  the  Empire 
was  universal  citizenship  among  freemen ;  but  for  the  time 
this  was  still  distant,  and  the  path  of  advancement  was  open 
only  to  the  few.  In  a  Colonia,  the  non-Roman  population 
was  indubitably  in  a  much  more  favourable  position  as 
regards  Roman  rights  than  in  the  mere  Greek  cities. 
They  had  a  certain  secondary  class  of  rights  (including, 
most  probably,  freedom  from  direct  taxes) ;  and  the  path 
towards  the  full  position  of  a  civis  Romanus  was  easier 
for  them. 

This  favoured  and  honourable  position  belonged  to  those 
Greek  incolae  in  virtue  of  the  Roman  Colonial  rank  of  their 
city.  As  members  of  the  Roman  Empire,  i.e.,  of  the  Province 
Galatia,  they  ranked  above  all  the  mere  Greek  cities  around, 
except  their  sister  colonies,  among  whom  they  were  primi 
inter  pares}  Now  in  view  of  the  intense  spirit  of  rivalry 
and  jealousy  between  city  and  city,  which  was  so  marked 
a  feature  of  Asia  Minor  municipal  life,^  the  citizens  would, 
of  course,  pride  thernselves  especially  on  those  features 
which  gave  them  their  rank :  they  would  be  good  and 
enthusiastically  loyal  Roman  citizens.  The  account  of 
Antioch  given  in  the  Acta  of  Paul  and  Thekla,  with  its 
high  priest  and  its  great  shows  to  which  crowds  from  the 
other  cities  of  Galatia  came,  is  instructive.^ 

In  view  of  these  circumstances  it  is  an  important  fact 
that,  in  Acts,  the  Gentiles  who  came  to  the  Antiochian 

^  See  p.  224.  ^  See  below,  p.  450  f. 

'  Church  in  the  Rom.  Emp.,  p.  396  ff. 


2o6  Historical  Introduction. 

synagogue,  "the  believing  proselytes,"  XIII  43,  are  not 
called  Greeks,  as  they  are  at  cities  of  the  Greek  type  like 
Iconium,  Ephesus,  etc.  This  name  of  Greek  would  be 
unsuitable  in  a  Roman  Colonia,  among  men  who  were 
proud  of  their  rank.  That  is  one  of  the  slight  instances  of 
exactness  in  expression,  hardly  noticeable  except  under  the 
microscope,  as  it  were,  which  make  up  the  fabric  of  Luke's 
History. 

And  yet  the  North  Galatian  Theorists  maintain  that 
these  Antiochians  would  have  preferred  to  be  called 
"  Phrygians  "  rather  than  "  men  of  the  Province  Galatia  ". 
A  horse,  or  a  slave,  was  called  "  Phryx,"  not  men  who 
prided  themselves  on  being  some  steps  nearer  the  Roman 
citizenship  than  their  merely  Greek  neighbours. 

The  process  of  acquiring  the  Roman  citizenship  evidently 
went  on  rapidly  during  the  first  century.  It  appears  pro- 
bable that  practically  the  entire  free  population  had 
acquired  the  Roman  rights  before  the  middle  of  the  second 
century,  otherwise  we  should  find  more  inscriptions  con- 
taining names  of  the  Greek  type.  Almost  every  man  who 
is  mentioned  has  the  three  names  of  the  Roman  citizen  ; 
and  the  freedmen  who  occur  have  the  standing  and  the 
three  names  of  Roman  libertini.  Probably,  when  Hadrian 
made  Iconium  a  Colonia,  11 7- 138,  Antioch  was  already  a 
body  of  Roman  cives. 

In  the  obscurity  as  to  the  exact  position  of  the  older 
inhabitants  in  the  Colonia,  it  is  impossible  to  be  certain  as 
to  the  law  of  family  and  inheritance  among  them.  Though 
the  Roman  Coloni,  all  doubtless  Western  born,  whom 
Augustus  settled  there,  would  preserve  the  principles  and 
forms  of  Roman  law,  it  is  entirely  improbable  that  the 
older  inhabitants,  already  in  possession  of  a  settled  and 


Section  ig :  Pisidian  Antioch.  207 

developed  legal  system,  were  called  upon  to  adopt  a  new 
and  strange  system.  It  was  not  Roman  method  to  destroy 
an  existing  civilisation.  One  who  was  not  a  Roman  citizen 
was  not  even  privileged  to  make  a  will  of  the  Roman  type  : 
he  must  follow  hereditary  and  national  custom.  In  the 
gradual  assimilation  of  law  in  the  East,  it  would  appear 
that  Greek  law  proved  too  strongly  established,  and  that 
it  was  not  thoroughly  Romanised  for  centuries,  if  at  all. 
The  influence  of  the  general  atmosphere  and  intercourse 
in  Asia  Minor  was  strong  enough  to  Hellenise  even  Celtic- 
Roman  Galatia :  much  more  was  it  able  to  preserve  in 
Colonia  Antiocheia  the  existing  type  of  Hellenic  society, 
even  though  the  forms  of  municipal  government  were 
Roman. 

Even  in  municipal  government  the  inscriptions  show 
some  traces  of  Greek  forms,  while  in  regard  to  social  cir- 
cumstances and  amusements  many  traces  of  the  Greek 
spirit  are  seen. 

The  government  of  Colonia  Antiocheia  was  of  the  usual 
Roman  type.  The  inscriptions  mention  Duoviri  Quin- 
quennales,  Duoviri,  Quaestores,  yEdiles :  a  senate  called 
Ordo^  whose  members  were  styled  Decuriones :  the  Ordo  et 
Populus  concurring  in  the  compliment  to  a  citizen :  the 
Populus  signifying  its  will  by  acclamation  in  the  theatre, 
and  carrying  its  will  into  effect  separately  in  each  Viais. 
There  was  a  priesthood  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  ; 
and  perhaps  a  municipal  High  priesthood  in  the  Imperial 
religion.^    ' 

But  there  are  also  traces  of  the  Greek  style  of  municipal 
government  creeping  into  that  Roman  organisation.     The 

1  Compare  C.  I.  L.,  Ill  6820,  with  the  Acta  of  Paul  and  Thekla 
(see  the  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  396  f. 


2o8  Historical  Introduction. 

office  of  Grammateus,  so  important  in  the  Hellenistic  cities 
of  the  East/  is  mentioned  as  an  Antiochian  office  between 
the  Quaestorship  and  the  Duumvirate.  The  title  of  Agono- 
theta  perpetuus  of  the  quinquennial  games  is  more  Greek 
than  Latin. 2 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  ordinary  language  of 
society  was  Greek,  and  not  Latin.  Greek  was  the  language 
of  trade  and  of  education.  It  was  only  pride  in  their 
Roman  rank  that  led  to  the  exclusive  use  of  Latin  in  in- 
scriptions during  the  first  century,  and  its  frequent  use  in 
the  second  century.  Similarly  Colonia  Lystra  used  the 
Latinised  form  Lustra  during  the  first  century. 

Two  bilingual  epitaphs  show  that  the  families  of  Roman 
Coloni  found  it  advisable  to  learn  Greek  ;  and  a  number  of 
Greek  inscriptions,  some  of  persons  with  Greek  names, 
some  with  Roman  names,  some  actually  erected  by  Roman 
citizens  in  honour  of  Roman  citizens,  point  to  the  same 
fact.  The  third  century  inscriptions  and  those  of  late  date 
are  usually  and  almost  exclusively  Greek  :  even  high  Roman 
imperial  officials  write  in  Greek  and  are  honoured  in  Greek. 
Instead  of  Colonia  A  ntiocheia,  the  pure  Greek  style  "  metro- 
polis of  the  Antiochians"  became  common  ;  and  there  is  even 
a  Greek  inscription  in  which  the  Boule  honours  Secundus 
on  the  occasion  of  his  having  filled  the  office  of  Strategos, 
where  the  pure  Greek  terms  are  used  in  place  of  Ordo  and 
Duumvir. 

The  games  which  are  mentioned  are  of  the  Greek  rather 
than  the  Roman  bloody  character :  a  certamen  gymnicum, 
and  a  certamen  quinquennale  talantiaeum.  Rut  these  belong 
to  the  second  or  even  the  third  century.^     The  Acta  of 

1  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  281.  ^  ayavodirrjs  8ta  piov. 

'  Compare  also  Le  Bas  and  Waddington,  No.  i620fl. 


Section  ig :  Pisidian  Antioch.  209 

Paul  and  Thekla  attest  in  the  first  century  a  more  Roman 
type  of  sports,  gladiators  and  combats  with  beasts,  showing 
that  the  Roman  spirit  was  stronger  then  and  grew  after- 
wards weaker. 

Antioch  was  not  merely  the  metropolis  of  all  Southern 
Galatia.  It  was  also,  in  a  special  sense,  the  centre  of  a 
Regio,  over  which  a  Roman  centurion  had  certain  duties.^ 
That  Regio  was  the  Phrygian  district  attached  to  Galatia, 
called  Pisidian  Phrygia  or  Galatic  Phrygia^ — the  former 
title  geographical,  the  latter  political.  It  is  called  by  the 
Greek  title  xoapa.  Acts  XIII  49  :  during  Paul's  residence  in 
Antioch,  the  entire  Regio  heard  of  the  new  faith.  Antioch 
was  a  centre  of  evangelic  influence  for  the  whole  Regio, 
just  as  Ephesus  was  for  the  whole  Province  of  which 
it  was  centre,  Acts  XIX  10.  That  Regio  is  afterwards 
defined  more  precisely  as  the  "  region  which  was  called 
Phrygian  (geographically)  and  Galatic  (politically),"  Acts 
XVI  6,  or,  as  the  antithesis  might  be  put,  "  Phrygian 
(by  the  Greeks)  and  Galatic  (by  the  Roman  govern- 
ment) ".  More  briefly  it  is  summed  up  as  "  the  Phrygian 
region"  in  Acts  XVIII  23,  where  some  prefer  to  take 
Phrygia  as  a  noun  (making,  however,  no  difference  to  the 
sense). 

It  is  not  at  present  possible  to  feel  certainty  whether 
or  not  Antioch  remained  part  of  the  Province  Galatia  down 
to  the  provincial  reorganisation  by  Diocletian  about  295.^ 
The  Pisidian  martyrs  Marcus,  Alphius  and  others  under 
Diocletian  are  said   to  have   been    of  the   city    Antioch, 

1  Inscription  mentioned  on  p.  199. 

2  Opposed  to  Asiana  Phrygia,  Galen,  vol.  VI,  p.  515,  Kuhn. 
*  See  p.  177  f. 

14 


2IO  Historical  Introduction. 

belonging  to  the  region  of  Galatic  Phrygia  :  ^  the  term 
Regio  is  important  and  indicates  a  good  ultimate  authority, 
as  we  have  already  seen. 

There  are  several  other  good  features  in  the  account : 
the  village  Kalytos  or  Katalytos,  where  the  martyrs  were 
blacksmiths  :  the  calling  in  of  bronze- workers  (;^a\yeoTU7rot) : 
perhaps  the  mention  of  Claudiopolis  as  a  Pisidian  city,  a 
corruption  of  Claudioseleuceia.  The  account  is  late  and 
corrupt :  the  original  Acta  probably  described  martyrs 
from  several  Pisidian  towns,  who  were  tried  before  the 
governor  of  Galatia  at  Antioch  during  a  progress  through 
his  Province.  If  that  occurred  under  Diocletian,  it  would 
be  established  that  Antioch  was  part  of  Galatia  under  his 
reign  ;  but  the  Emperor's  name  is  far  from  trustworthy ; 
that  detail  was  incorrectly  added  in  late  versions  of  many 
Acta ;  and  in  this  case  the  probability  is  that  it  is  a  mere 
guess  of  a  late  redactor,  and  did  not  occur  in  the  original 
Acta. 

We  thus  conclude  that  the  facts  are  as  a  whole  true  ;  but 
the  date  is  probably  false,  being  later  than  the  truth. 

Ptolemy  mentions  Antioch  both  as  a  city  of  Galatia  and 
as  a  city  of  the  Province  Pamphylia  and  district  Pisidian 
Phrygia.  That  suggests  the  mixing  up  of  an  earlier  classi- 
fication to  Galatia,  and  a  later  (true  in  his  time)  to  Pam- 
phylia ;  but  it  may  be  a  mere  blunder.  At  least  it  is 
certain  that  Antioch  was  classed  to  Galatia  as  late  as  the 
end  of  Trajan's  reign. 

Aelian  mentions  a  kind  of  partridge  (^vpoirepSi^),  small, 
very  wild,  black  in  colour,  with  red  beak,  the  flesh  well- 

1  Menolog.  SirUtianum  quoted  in  Acta  Sanctorum,  28th  Sept.,  p. 
563  :  sub.  Diocletiano  Imp.  in  urbe  Antiochiae  Pisidiae  ex  regione 
Phrygiae  Galaticae  (wrongly  Galaciae)  sub  praeside  Magna. 


Section  ig  :  Pisidian  Antioch.  2 1 1 

tasted,  at  Antioch  of  Pisidia  :  it  ate  stones  {Hist.  Anim., 
XVI  7). 

We  should  be  glad  to  know  in  what  relation  the  old 
sanctuary  stood  to  the  Colonia.  The  great  estates  which 
once  belonged  to  the  temple  are  not  likely  to  have  been 
left  undisturbed  by  Greek  kings  or  by  the  Greek  autono- 
mous government.  In  some  similar  cases  there  is  evidence 
to  show  that  part  or  the  whole  of  the  vast  temple  properties 
in  Asia  Minor  had  become  imperial  estates.^  In  the  case  of 
Antioch,  it  is  probable  that  land  for  the  Coloni  was  found, 
not  by  depriving  the  older  population  of  their  property, 
but  by  presenting  temple  lands  to  the  Colonia. 

This  theory  explains,  and  is  confirmed  by,  the  evidence 
of  Strabo,  who  states  that  the  temple  formerly  possessed 
much  sacred  land  and  a  large  body  of  temple  slaves,  but  its 
temporal  power  and  wealth  were  put  down  after  Amyntas 
died.  Such  is  the  probable  meaning  of  his  expression  :  ^ 
the  temple  itself  was  not  put  down,  for  the  hereditary  god 
Men  and  his  priests  for  life  are  often  mentioned  in  inscrip- 
tions. 

But  there  must  have  been  certain  property  connected 
with  the  temple,  the  management  of  which  was  entrusted 
to  an  officer  called  "  Curator  of  the  Sanctuary  Chest  "  :  ^  it 
is  highly  probable  that  the  Colonia  was  charged  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  temple  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  pro- 
perty, which  once  had  belonged  to  the  temple  and  had  been 
presented  by  Augustus  to  the  Colonia. 

The  circumstances  of  Antioch  suggest  that  the  temple 
stood  in  relations  to  the  city  similar  to  those  that  existed 
in  Ephesus.     The  strength  of  the  Asiatic  spirit  was  always 

^  Citu&  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  11.  ^  KareXydr). 

'  Curator  Arcac  Sanctuariae. 


212  Historical  Introduction. 

connected  with  the  temple  ;  and  the  temple  had  consider- 
able influence  even  while  the  Romanising  spirit  was  most 
vigorous. 

A  festival  called  Apollo's  Birth,^  mentioned  at  Pisidian 
Antioch,  must  certainly  be  understood  as  a  festival  of  Men. 
The  story  of  the  birth  of  the  god  was  among  the  great 
mysteries  of  the  religion,  as  acted  before  the  initiated. 
The  mystic  ceremonies  were  everywhere  associated  with 
a  public  festival. 

No  sure  trace  of  the  Jewish  element  can  be  detected  in 
inscriptions.  The  Antiochian  Jews  had  apparently  disused 
Hebrew  names  completely  (at  least  in  public)  ;  but  it  is  not 
impossible  that  some  of  the  characteristic  Antiochian  names, 
such  as  Anicius,  Caristanius,  may  hide  Jews  of  high  rank. 

Few  Christian  inscriptions  at  Antioch  are  known.  But 
in  the  great  cities,  where  Roman  officials  were  numerous, 
it  was  always  expedient  for  the  Christians  to  make  little 
public  show,  and  to  draw  as  little  attention  on  themselves 
as  possible.^ 

One  ends  with  the  phrase  "  he  shall  have  to  reckon  with 
the  might  of  God  "  ;  another  with  "  thou  shalt  not  wrong 
God  "  ;  two  others  with  "  he  shall  have  to  reckon  with  God  ". 
These  classes  of  inscriptions  are  more  fully  described  else- 
where.^ An  epigram  uses  the  expression  dOavdrov  yfrvxv'ij 
which  seems  of  Christian  type.* 

Le  Quien  mentions  as  bishops  of  Antioch  (i)  Eudoxius 
about  290-300,  (2)  Optatus,  (3)  Anthimos,  and  (4)  Cyprianus. 

Of  these  Eudoxius  is  probably  historical,  for  the  account 
given  in  a  Greek  menology  under  23rd  June  seems  taken 

1  TfvedXia  'AnoKXavos,  Acta  SS.  Trophimi,  etc.,  19th  Sept.,  p.  12. 

2  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  711.  ^  Op.  cit.,  II,  ch.  XII. 
*  See  Sterrett,  Epigr.  Journ.,  138,  142,  143  ;  C.  I.  G.,  3980. 


Section  ig:  Pisidian  Antioch.  213 

from  a  trustworthy  source  :  in  it  Eustochius  of  Ousada  {i.e., 
Vasada),  a  Pagan  priest,  seeks  baptism  from  Eudoxius  of 
x^ntioch ;  and  afterwards  goes  to  Lystra,  where  he  has 
relatives ;  finally  he  is  sent  for  trial  to  Ancyra  and  con- 
demned. There  is  so  much  correct  detail  in  the  story,  that 
a  presumption  is  created  in  its  favour. 

But  Optatus,  Anthimos  and  Cyprianus,  though  accepted 
by  Le  Quien  and  the  Bollandists  (26th  Sept.,  VII,  p.  189  f), 
have  little  claim  to  be  historical,  much  less  to  be  classed  to 
Pisidian  Antioch.  The  Acta  of  Justina,  in  which  they  are 
mentioned,  is  a  document  of  poor  character ;  and  Syrian 
Antioch  is  mentioned  as  the  city  of  Justina  by  many 
authorities. 

In  314  Sergianos  represented  Antioch  at  the  Council  of 
Ancyra,  and  in  325  Antonius  at  Nicaea. 

A  city  Antioch  is  mentioned  very  often  in  the  ancient 
Syrian  Martyrology,  but  the  presumption  is  that  Syrian 
Antioch  is  meant. 

Apollonia,  the  city  most  closely  connected  with  Antioch, 
and  like  it  classed  to  Pisidian  Phrygia,  is  said  to  have  had 
Mark,  the  nephew  of  Barnabas,  as  its  evangelist  and  first 
bishop  ;  see  Acta  Sanctorum,  21st  June,  V,  p.  58;  and  not 
far  south  of  Apollonia,  the  church  of  Seleuceia  is  said  to 
have  had  a  first  century  origin  with  Artemon  as  first  bishop 
(27th  March). 

Eighteen  bishoprics  of  the  Province  Pisidia  are  recorded 
in  or  before  the  fourth  century.  Six  ^  more  are  added  in 
later  records,  mostly  in  the  mountainous  and  least  civilised 
parts  of  Pisidia. 

^  Bindaion  is  probably  only  another  name  for  Eudoxiopolis,  Cities 
and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  326.  Le  Quien  distinguishes  them,  and 
makes  seven  late  bishoprics. 


SECTION  20. 

ICpNIUM. 

There  is  a  remarkable  resemblance  between  the  beautiful 

and  impressive  situation  of  Damascus  and  that  of  Iconium. 

Both  cities  are  situated  near  the  western  end  of  vast  level 

plains,  which  extend  to  the  east  far  further  than  the  eye 

can  see ;  and  mountains,  rising  like  islands  out  of  the  level 

plain,  give  character  and  variety  to  the  wide  view  eastwards. 

Within  a  few  miles  towards  the  west  in  each  case  rises  a 

great   hilly,   even   mountainous  region,   from   which  issue 

streams  that   make  the   immediate  surroundings  of.  both 

cities  a  perfect  garden  :  the  streams  find  no  outlet  to  the 

sea,  but  are  merged  in  the  marshy  lakes  that  lie  a  little 

way  east  in  the  open  plains.     Situated  thus  in  an  always 

green  and  rich  garden  on  the  edge  of  the  wilderness,  each 

of  the  two  cities  enjoys  a  permanent  importance  which  no 

political  changes  can  destroy,  however  much  misgovernment 

may  diminish   their  wealth  and   prosperity.     Each   is  of 

immemorial  antiquity.     Damascus  is  famed  as  the  oldest 

of  cities.     At  Iconium  King  Nannakos  or  Annakos  reigned 

before  the  flood ;  and,  as  there  was  a  prophecy  that  "  after 

him  came  the  deluge,  when  all  must  perish,"  his  Phrygian 

subjects   mourned    for   him   with   a   sorrow   that   became 

proverbial. 

The  legend  of  Nannakos  makes  him  a  king  of  the  Phry- 

(214) 


Section  20  :  Iconium.  215 

gians.  Xenophon,  who  visited  it  during  the  Anabasis  of 
Cyrus,  calls  it  the  extremest  city  of  Phrygia,  Pliny  quotes 
it  among  a  list  of  famous  old  Phrygian  cities/  evidently 
using  some  Greek  authority ;  though,  where  he  describes 
the  political  geography  of  Asia  Minor,  he  makes  Iconium 
the  capital  of  the  Lycaonian  Tetrarchy,  which  was  added 
to  Galatia.  In  Acts  XIV  6  Paul  and  Barnabas  flee  from 
Iconium  into  Lycaonia,  implying  that  it  was  not  a  city  of 
Lycaonia.  In  A.D.  163,  at  the  trial  of  Justin  Martyr,  one 
of  his  associates,  a  slave  named  Hierax,  described  himself 
as  coming  from  Iconium  of  Phrygia.^  About  A.D,  250 
Firmilian  attended  the  Council  of  Iconium,  and  describes 
it  as  a  city  of  Phrygia.  It  does  not  on  its  coins  name  the 
Koinon  of  Lycaonia.  The  Vita  S.  Arteniii  (ascribed  to 
Joannes  Damascius)  mentions  Iconium  as  the  last  city  of 
Phrygia  (doubtless  on  some  older  authority).^ 

This  forms  a  very  complete  chain  of  evidence,  almost 
entirely  taken  from  persons  who  had  seen  the  city.  On 
the  other  hand  persons  who  thought  only  of  political  con- 
nection and  geography,  always  describe  Iconium  as  a  city 
of  Lycaonia  :  so  e.g.,  Strabo,  Pliny,  Ptolemy,  Cicero, 
Stephanus,^  etc. 

The  contradiction  is  explained  by  the  situation  of  Icon- 
ium in  the  vast  Lycaonian  plain,  while  it  was  the  extreme 
point  to  which  the  Phryges  had  extended  their  conquest. 
It  was,  in  perfect  truth,  the  last  Phrygian  city ;  all  beyond 
it  to  the  south  and  east  was  Lycaonian.      At  a  frontier 

^  Read  Iconium  for  Conium,  V  41,  145. 
2  Ruinart  alters  the  text  of  the  MSS. 
OifKdbiv  To'ivvv  Anacrav  rqv  ^pvyiav  Koi  irpos  ttjv  fa'^dTT/v  avTrjs  TroXiv 
TO  KaXnvfievop   Ikoviov  KaTavTT](Tas. 

■•  Yet  he  mentions  Nannakos  and  his  Phrygian  subjects. 


2i6  Historical  Introduction. 

city,  the  memory  of  diversity  in  race  is  sometimes  preserved 
most  tenaciously,  because  it  is  kept  vividly  before  the 
minds  of  the  people.  So  it  was  in  Iconium.  Usually  in 
Asia  Minor  boundaries  between  countries  and  races  were 
vague  and  uncertain.  But  the  boundary  between  Phrygia 
and  Lycaonia  was  narrowly  fixed  at  that  one  point.  The 
world  in  general  spoke  of  Iconium  as  the  chief  city  of 
Lycaonia:  nature  and  geography  make  it  that.  But  the 
Iconians  distinguished  themselves  from  the  Lycaonians  and 
claimed  to  be  of  Phrygian  stock,  even  in  late  Roman  times. 

The  reason  why  the  Iconians  were  always  so  clear  and 
positive  as  to  their  Phrygian  origin  must  have  lain  in 
something  that  was  vividly  brought  before  the  minds  of  the 
people ;  and  part  of  the  cause  was,  beyond  all  doubt,  difference 
of  language.  That  is  revealed  to  us  in  Acts  XIV  6  :  when 
Paul  and  Barnabas  fled  from  Iconium  to  its  near  neighbour 
Lystra,  they  crossed  into  Lycaonia  (out  of  Phrygia) ;  and 
the  Lystran  rabble  spoke  in  the  Lycaonian  tongue  (p.  1 50). 

Late  authorities  describe  Iconium  as  a  city  of  Pisidia. 
That  is  due  to  the  political  arrangement  according  to  which 
western  Lycaonia  was  part  of  a  Province  Pisidia,  from  A.D. 
295-372.^  Iconium  was  a  sort  of  secondary  metropolis  of 
Pisidia  Provincia.'^  When  the  new  Province  Lycaonia 
was  organised  about  372,  Iconium  became  its  metropolis  ; 
and  Amphilochius  (375-circ.  400),  a  bishop  of  great  vigour, 
made  it  a  highly  important  place  in  ecclesiastical  history. 

The  tendency  is  often  seen  to  take  some  prominent  name 
and  extend  it  over  several  regions  as  title  of  a  Roman 
political  division,  in  defiance  of  strict  geographical  truth  : 
so  the  names  Asia,  Galatia,  Cilicia,  Pisidia,  were  employed 

^  Ammianus,  XIV  2,  Basil,  Epist.  8,  393,  406. 

^  fifTa  TTjv  fifyloTTjv  T)  irpaiTr],  Basil,  Epist.  8. 


Section  20  :  Iconium.  2  1 7 

in  a  very  wide  way  at  different  times,  because  each  was 
strong  in  the  Roman  mind  at  the  time. 

Iconium  is  about  3350  feet  above  sea-level  :  it  is  now 
a  railway  station,  and  chief  city  of  a  vitayet  or  Turkish 
province. 

The  extraordinary  vicissitudes  in  the  history  of  Iconium 
during  the  last  three  centuries  B.C.  have  been  described  in 
sections  7-12. 

It  certainly  ranked  as  a  Hellenic  city,  i.e.^  a  city  in 
which  Hellenic  order  and  municipal  organisation  had 
been  naturalised,  and  in  which  the  official  language  was 
Greek  from  the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  Hence,  like 
many  other  Hellenised  Phrygian  cities,  it  liked  to  connect 
its  origin  with  Greek  legend  :  it  derived  its  name  either 
from  the  image  of  Medusa,  brought  there  by  Perseus,^  or 
from  the  clay  images  of  men  which  Prometheus  made  there 
after  the  flood  to  replace  the  drowned  people.  The  latter 
story  shows  an  intention  of  giving  to  the  Iconian  legend  of 
the  flood  a  Greek  appearance.^ 

Thus  we  see  that,  though  it  claimed  to  be  Phrygian  in 
contrast  to  Lycaonian,  it  also  claimed  to  be  of  Greek  origin 
ultimately.  That  proves  it  to  have  taken  on  the  Greek 
character,  with  Greek  forms  of  government  and  society. 
Its  people  would  be  called  in  the  customary  sense  Hellenes, 
and  that  name  is  applied  to  them  in  Acts  XIV  i. 

The  North  Galatian  Theorists  maintain  that  the  Iconians 
would  have  chosen  to  be  called  Phrygians  (or  Lycaonians)  ;  ^ 

^  ftico)!',  Eustath.,  ad  Dionys.  Per.,  856. 

^  Steph.  Byz.  Compare  the  development  of  the  native  legend  of 
the  flood  at  Kelainai-Apameia,  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  pp.  415 
and  671. 

■'  Many  of  them  have  taken  it  as  a  city  of  Lycaonia. 


2i8  Historical  Introduction. 

as  if  persons  who  claimed  the  rank  of  Hellenes  would  have 
accepted  that  address  as  anything  but  an  insult.  Ethno- 
logically,  they  were  Phrygians ;  but  the  title  Hellenes 
implied  a  certain  standard  of  education,  knowledge  and 
social  elevation,  inconsistent  with  the  address  "  Phryges  "  : 
pp.  129,  181  f,  230  f 

During  the  period  37-72  the  name  Lycaones  had  a 
peculiarly  non-Roman  innuendo,  for  it  was  regularly  used 
to  designate  the  inhabitants  of  that  part  of  Lycaonia  which 
was  outside  Roman  bounds,  and  subject  to  King  Antiochus. 
On  his  coins  the  legend  "  Of  the  Lycaonians''  is  engraved. 
At  that  time  the  Iconian  pride  in  their  Roman  connection 
{i.e.,  in  their  belonging  to  the  Province  Galatia)  was  marked 
by  the  title  Claud-Iconium.  That  title  is  a  real  indication 
of  political  feeling.  To  understand  its  significance,  one 
must  try  to  imagine  Dublin  assuming  and  boasting  in 
public  documents  of  the  title  Victorian  Dublin.  What  a 
change  in  Irish  feeling  that  would  indicate  ! 

Little  can  be  gathered  from  the  Iconian  inscriptions 
about  the  city  constitution.  It  was  governed  by  Archons  ; 
but  no  decrees  have  been  found  earlier  than  the  changes 
introduced  by  Hadrian,  except  C.  I.  G.,  3991,  which  is  an 
honorary  decree  of  the  Demos. 

Hadrian  conferred  on  Iconium  the  rank  of  a  Colonia,  with 
the  title  Aelia  Hadriana  Iconiensium  (see  p.  123). 

Doubtless  this  elevation  gave  the  position  and  rights  of 
Romans  to  the  whole  body  of  Iconian  citizens.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  the  ordinary  colonial  constitution  was 
instituted  in  Iconium  ;  but  an  inscription  ^  might  perhaps 
be  restored  as  T.  'ATrircovio^  Kpi(T7ro<i  S[vav8piKo<;]  EUtouiov, 

1  Sterrett,  Epigraph.  Jouru.,  No.  254  (not  restored  there). 


Section  20  :  Iconium.  2 1 9 

implying  that  C.  Aponius  Crispus  was  duumvir  of  the 
Colonia.  Latin  was  adopted  as  the  official  language  ;  but 
there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  think  that  this  was  more 
than  a  superficial  Romanisation.  Greek  still  continued, 
beyond  any  doubt,  to  be  the  only  speech  (besides  Phrygian) 
in  actual  use  among  the  people,  as  the  inscription  of  Crispus 
and  others  show.  Except  in  two  or  three  official  decrees, 
the  language  of  inscriptions  was  still  Greek.  But  it  was  a 
matter  of  pride  to  employ  Latin  officially  on  coins  and  in 
decrees  of  the  city,  to  mark  its  new  Roman  rank. 

As  to  the  religion  of  Iconium  the  inscriptions  and 
authorities  give  very  scanty  information  ;  but  there  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  as  to  its  resemblance  to  the  general 
Anatolian  type.  The  remarkable  words  of  C.  L  G.,  4000, 
enigmatic  as  they  are,  would  alone  prove  this  : — 

dpi;[7-]^p€S 
AKa[p]a$  bfj/iov  X'^P'"  '"^^  8(Ka\^iJ.\u^ov,^ 
TfTpoKoprjS  T€  deas  npoTToXoL  Koi  Atoj/vcrou 

"  priests  of  the  four-headed,  ten-breasted  (deity)  on  behalf 
of  the  people,  and  servants  of  the  many-natured  goddess 
and  of  Dionysos "  :  i.e.,  priest  and  priestess  of  the  patron 
gods  of  the  city,  a  goddess  of  the  type  of  Ephesian  Artemis, 
the  nursing  mother  of  all  life,  and  her  associated  god,  giver 
of  wine  like  the  Greek  Dionysos.^  Moreover  the  goddess 
is  called  in  C.  L  G.,  3993,  by  many  names  :  she  is  Angdistis 

^  Maltreated  by  Boeckh  and  Franz :  though  punctuation  marks 
show  the  verses,  they  read  apfj^ifpeljy  for  dpr][T]rjpfs  (Homeric  and 
late  epic),  and  place  it  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  hexameter.  The 
following  word  seems  to  be  intended  for  {TfTpa)Kd[p]us  perhaps  (but 
Franz  reads  ['A;^]aias') :  it  may  be  an  epithet  of  the  goddess  or  of  the 
Demos  (as  containing  four  tribes). 

^  Terpairpoaconos  and  rpiKapavos  both  occur  in  a  late  hymn  to 
Selene,  Hermes,  IV,  p.  64. 


2  20  Historical  Introduction. 

and  Mother  Bo[ri]thene^  and  Mother  of  the  gods.  She 
is  also  the  Mother  Zizimene  or  Dindimene :  Sarre  in 
Oesterreich.  Mittheil.,   1896,  p.  31. 

At  the  same  time  there  was  doubtless  a  certain  local 
variation  everywhere  in  the  Anatolian  religion.  At 
Iconium  we  are  nearing  the  southern  side  of  the  plateau, 
and  the  legend  of  Perseus  (so  common  on  the  south  coast 
along  with  the  kindred  tale  of  Bellerophon)  played  a  great 
part  in  the  city  tradition. 

One  of  the  most  extensive  groups  of  early  Christian 
inscriptions  belongs  to  Iconium  and  the  country  north  and 
north-east  from  it.  The  inscriptions  have  no  dates.  So 
far  as  the  style  of  lettering  goes,  some  of  them  might  be 
assigned  to  the  third  century  ;  but  the  majority  belong 
more  probably  to  the  fourth  and  even  fifth  centuries. 

The  reason  why  they  were  so  numerous  then  probably 
is  that  there  was  at  that  time  a  great  development  of 
education  among  the  rustic  population.  The  pagan  Graeco- 
Roman  civilisation  had  its  seat  in  the  towns,  and  hardly 
touched  the  country  districts.  It  was  Christianity  which 
spread  a  knowledge  of  Greek  and  a  certain  degree  of 
education  among  them  ;  and,  when  the  country  people 
first  began  to  write  and  to  use  inscriptions,  their  names 
and  other  signs  show  they  were  Christians. 

This  large  group  of  inscriptions  extends  into  Phrygia 
Paroreios  on  the  west,  and  up  through  the  Added  Land 
west  of  Lake  Tatta  on  the  north-east.  It  seems  beyond 
doubt  to  mark  an  influence  spreading  from  Iconium.  To 
describe  its  character  would  be  outside  of  our  proper  subject. 

In    many   of  those   inscriptions   Jewish   names   occur  ; 

^  Reading  PI  for  H  :  Boritene  was  an  epithet  of  the  goddess  Kore 
at  Thyatira  and  Attalia  (a  neighbouring  town). 


Section  20  :  Iconium.  221 

but  it  is  uncertain  how  far  these  can  be  assumed  to  mark 
Jewish-Christians.  C.  I.  G.,  9270,  is  in  all  probability 
Jewish-Christian  and  perhaps  various  others.  A  certain 
Tyrronius  of  Iconium,  a  trainer  of  athletes  in  the  second 
century,  has  been  recognised  as  a  Jew.^  Possibly  the  name 
Ebourenos  may  also  be  Jewish.^ 

Iconium  was  always  the  Christian  metropolis,  and  head 
of  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  Lycaonia,  which  was  as 
highly  developed  as  that  of  Pisidia  at  an  early  time. 
Sixteen  bishoprics  are  mentioned  during  the  fourth  century 
or  earlier  ;  ^  one  appears  first  in  451  (Barata) ;  and  one  in 
680  (Verinopolis).  The  latter,  previously,  was  probably 
included  in  a  joint  bishopric  with  Glavama  ;  but,  being  far 
north  near  the  Galatian  frontier,  they  shared  in  the  growing 
importance  of  that  northern  country  :  see  p.  170  f. 

Note. — Pliny  mentions  a  city  Iconium  in  Cilicia.  That 
was  true  in  a  political  and  Roman  sense  about  B.C.  80-40. 
It  is  also  true  that  Cilicia  was  used  by  Appian,  Bell.  Civ., 
V  75,  and  doubtless  by  others  in  a  loose  way  to  include  a 
good  large  slice  of  Lycaonia  ;  and  the  first  kingdom  of 
Polemon,  which  included  Iconium,  is  called  simply  "  part 
of  Cilicia,"  sections,  9,  10.  In  the  late  Notitiae  Episco- 
patuuni  and  in  the  late  Byzantine  and  the  Armenian 
writers,  Cilicia  extends  far  beyond  the  Cilician  Gates  to 
include  Podandos,  Faustinopolis-Loulon,  and  even  The- 
basa. 

1  Citus  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  650. 

2  Sterrett,  Epigr.  Journ.,  No.  192. 

3  Glavama,  according  to  Le  Quien,  is  first  mentioned  in  451 ;  but 
in  325  it  is  mentioned  as  a  Bishopric  of  Galatia,  to  which  Province 
it  then  belonged,  p.  178.     Ilistra  in  325,  see  section  21. 


222  Historical  Introduction. 

Pliny  in  that  passage,  V  93,  was  trusting  to  an  autho- 
rity who  used  Cilicia  in  that  wide,  loose  way.  But  his 
statement  has  been  perverted  to  prove  that  an  Iconium 
in  Cilicia  must  be  distinguished  as  a  separate  city  from 
Iconium  in  Lycaonia  or  Phrygia  :  e.g.^  the  Liber  Nominum 
Locorum  ex  Actis  (Hieronymus,  ed.  Migne,  III  1302)  says, 
"  Iconium  civitas  celeberrima  Lycaoniae  :  et  est  altera  in 
Cilicia".     So  some  moderns. 


SECTION  21. 

LYSTRA. 

Lystra  was  situated  in  a  pleasant  valley,  bordered  by 
gently  sloping  hills  of  no  great  height,  through  which 
flows  a  small  but  steady  stream  to  be  lost  in  the  open 
Lycaonian  plain  a  few  miles  farther  east.  The  city  was 
planted  on  a  small  hill  in  the  middle  of  the  valley,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  stream,  about  a  mile  north-west  of  the 
modern  village  Khatyn-Serai,  which  is  on  the  south  side 
of  the  water.  The  proof  of  the  position  of  Lystra  is  one 
of  Professor  Sterrett's  many  services  to  our  knowledge  of 
Asia  Minor  ;  but  the  site  was  divined  with  marvellously 
sure  intuition  by  Leake  in  the  beginning  of  the  century. 
It  is  about  3780  feet  above  sea  level. 

In  this  favourable  position  there  must  always  have  been 
a  settlement  somewhere  near  Khatyn-Serai  ;  but  the  history 
of  Lystra  begins  with  Augustus,  who  founded  there  one  of 
the  series  of  Coloniae,  which  he  made  to  defend  the  southern 
frontier  of  Galatia.  The  name  Lystra  is  probably  Lycao- 
nian, for  Ilistra  and  Kilistra  also  occur  in  the  country :  the 
former  a  city  and  bishopric,  near  Laranda,  the  latter  a 
village  about  twelve  miles  up  the  stream  from  Lystra,  with 
wonderful  rock-cuttings  of  the  Christian  time :  both  still 
retain  the  ancient  names. 

But   it    happened    that   the    Lycaonian   name   had   an 

(223) 


224  Historical  Introduction. 

obvious  resemblance  to  the  Latin  word  lustrum,  and  a 
little  detail  shows  the  Latin  feeling  in  Lystra.  It  called 
itself  Lustra,  not  Lystra,  in  all  its  inscriptions  and  coins. 
It  spelt  Roman,  not  Greek.  Greek  cities  like  Prymnessos 
never  used  the  Latin  spelling  Prumnessos  even  if  they 
wrote  in  Latin  ;  ^  but  Lystran  coins  read  COLONIA  • 
JULIA  •  FELIX  •  GEMINA  •  LUSTRA. 

Accordingly  Lystra  did  not  pair  herself  with  the  Greek 
cities  of  the  region.  She  claimed  to  be  the  sister  of  the 
Roman  Antioch.  So  we  read  on  the  basis  of  a  statue 
which  Lystra  sent  to  her  sister  in  the  second  century  : —  ^ 

The  very  brilliant  sister  Colonia  of  the  Antiochians 

is  honoured  by 

the  very  brilliant  Colonia  of  the  Lystrans 

with  the  Statue  of  Concord. 

It  is  an  interesting  point  that  this  inscription  is  in  Greek, 
proving  that,  amid  all  the  local  pride  in  Roman  names  and 
titles,  the  Latin  language  was  only  a  delicate  exotic. 

Lystra  lay  eight  or  ten  miles  off  the  great  trade  route  in 
a  secluded  glen,  and  would  not  have  full  opportunity  of 
sharing  in  the  Hellenisation  of  the  cities  along  that  road, 
like  Iconium  and  Derbe.  Only  a  special  occasion  ^  lent  it 
temporary  irnportance  during  the  first  century.  We  should 
expect  to  find  that  in  it  Greek  civilisation  had  not  been 
so  strongly  naturalised  as  in  the  two  neighbouring  cities. 
Evidence  is  very  scanty  ;  but,  such  as  it  is,  it  tends  to 
support  that  view.  Lystra  is  the  only  place  in  which  the 
use  of  the  native  language  among  at  least  a  section  of  the 

iC.  I.  L.,  Ill  7043,  7171.  Lustra  in  C.  I.  L.,  Ill  6596  {<Zol.  Lus^ 
trensium  in  last  line),  6786. 

2  Sterrett,  Wolfe  Expedition,  352.  *  See  p.  114  f. 


Section  2i :  Lystra.  225 

population  was  prominent  enough  to  find  mention  in  the 
Acts.  In  its  inscriptions,  apart  from  those  of  the  Latin- 
speaking  coloni,  we  find  few  signs  of  Greek  civilisation. 
There  is  a  larger  proportion  of  Greek  among  the  inscrip- 
tions than  at  Antioch,  but  not  the  same  evidence  of  Greek 
character. 

At  the  same  time  it  should  be  noticed  that  it  was  among 
the  Pagans,  engaged  in  an  act  of  their  religion,  and  not 
among  the  Christian  converts,  that  Lycaonian  was  spoken. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Paul  addressed  himself 
to  people  that  spoke  only  Lycaonian.  The  existence  of 
Jews,  and  therefore  of  trade,^  proves  that  Greek  was  fami- 
liar to  many  ;  the  Roman  influence  really  fostered  Greek, 
as  we  have  seen  ;  and  there  is  a  considerable  number  of 
Roman  inscriptions. 

As  to  the  Lycaonian  religion  in  Lystra  or  in  Derbe,  no 
evidence  exists  outside  of  the  Acts.  The  name  of  Zeus 
was  given  by  the  Greek-speaking  population  to  the  great 
god  who  was  the  most  prominent  figure  exoterically  at  the 
sanctuary  in  front  of  the  city  ;  but  such  identifications  with 
Greek  deities  prove  nothing  as  to  the  real  character  of  the 
worship.  Doubtless  it  was  much  of  the  same  character  as 
in  Iconium.     See  Sections  5,  20. 

There  was  a  disposition  in  Lystra  to  believe  in  actual 
theophany,  or  appearance  of  the  gods  on  earth  in  human 
form,  as  they  had  appeared  near  Tyriaion  ^  to  Baucis  and 
Philemon  (according  to  the  pretty  tale  related  by  Ovid). 

^  Church  in  Rom.  Empire,  p.  69. 

"^  The  corruptions  in  Ovid,  Me^am.,  VIII 719,  trineius,fineius,  thineyus, 
cineius,  chineius,  tirinthius,  phyneius,  thyrneius,  etc.,  point  to  Tyriaius 
or  Tyrieius,  not  Tyaneius  (an  impossible  form  given  in  the  current 
texts). 

15 


2  26  Historical  Introduction. 

That  was  a  Phrygian  story,  as  Ovid  says  ;  ^  but  in  religion 
Phrygia  and  Lycaonia  meet.  The  Phrygian  gods  were 
often  worshipped  as  the  "  manifest  God  "  :  tov  liri^avkaTa- 
Tov  Oeov  in  inscriptions. 

At  the  hieron  before  the  city,  there  would  certainly  be  a 
college  of  priests,  as  at  the  other  great  sanctuaries  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  not  merely  a  single  priest  of  the  God,  though 
of  course  there  was  a  head  in  the  college  at  all  such  hiera. 
At  Pessinus  the  college  contained  at  least  ten  priests ;  at 
the  Milyan  hieron  there  were  six.^ 

Lystra  ceased  to  be  a  city  of  any  consequence  after  the 
Augustan  Coloniae  lost  their  importance.  When  the  moun- 
tain country  was  pacified,  they  were  no  longer  needed  as 
garrisons ;  and  Lystra  had  not  like  Antioch  a  situation 
such  as  to  make  it  great  in  all  circumstances.  Hence, 
though  it  was  at  first  so  important  in  Christian  history,  and 
though  several  early  traditions  are  connected  with  it,  yet  in 
later  Christian  history  it  is  rarely  heard  of  To  Roman 
policy  Lystra  owed  the  only  political  importance  it  ever 
possessed  :  without  that  support,  it  sank  again  to  its  original 
insignificance. 

A  Lystran  martyr  Zoilos  is  mentioned  in  the  early 
Syrian  Martyrology  on  23rd  May.  The  story  of  Eustochius 
is  connected  with  the  city.^  It  is  mentioned  in  the  tale  of 
Paul  and  Thekla.  Artemas  or  Artemius,  one  of  the  seventy, 
is  said  to  have  been  Bishop  of  Lystra.  But  it  was  not 
represented  at  Nicaea  in  325  ;  for  Tiberius,  whom  Le 
Quien  makes  Bishop  of  Lystra,  was  really  Bishop  of  Ilistra. 

1  Ovid,  Me^.,  VIII  621. 

2  Citus  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  288,  Aristid,  Or.,  XXIII,  pp.  451, 
490. 

*  See  p.  213  and  Hisior.  Geogr.  of  Asia  Minor,  p.  333  f. 


Section  21 :  Lystra.  227 

Paulus  of  Lystra  is  mentioned  at  the  Council  of  Constanti- 
nople in  381. 

The  only  trace  of  its  Christian  history  that  remains  is  a 
sacred  spring  or  Ayasma  ^  close  to  the  city,  to  which  the 
Greeks  of  Iconium  and  Zille  resort,  and  which  even  the 
Turks  respect  as  holy.  There  is  much  need  of  excavation 
on  the  deserted  site  in  order  to  clear  up  some  of  the  details 
recorded  in  Acts  about  Lystra. 

1  dylaafia,  the  usual  name  for  Christian  sacred  springs. 


SECTION  22. 

DERBE. 

The  situation  of  Derbe  was  probably  at  a  large  mound — 
of  the  style  that  Strabo  calls  "  mound  of  Semiramis  " — 
named  by  the  Turks  Gudelisin,  about  three  miles  north- 
west from  the  village  Zosta  or  Losta  near  the  straightest 
road  from  Iconium  to  Laranda.  Professor  Sterrett  placed 
Derbe  between  Zosta  and  Bosola  (a  village  two  miles 
further  east)  :  in  both  villages  there  are  many  ancient  cut 
stones  and  some  inscriptions ;  but  it  seemed  to  me  that 
these  had  been  carried,  and  that  the  true  ancient  site  was 
at  the  now  deserted  mound,  where  evidently  an  old  city 
once  stood.  The  difference  is  not  important  for  our 
purposes.^ 

While  this  site  is  highly  probable,  and  suits  well  all  our 
scanty  information  about  Derbe,  yet  it  is  very  desirable 
that  excavation  should  be  made  in  order  to  place  it  beyond 
doubt  that  Derbe  was  in  this  neighbourhood.  At  one 
time  I  thought  Bin-Bir-Kilise  might  be  the  site  of  Derbe  ; 
but  that  does  not  suit  so  well.  Others  have  placed  Derbe 
at  Serpek  or  Ambararassi,  about  fifteen  miles  west  from 
Kybistra  ;  but  that  seems  irreconcilable  with  the  evidence 
that  Derbe  was  a  Roman  provincial  city,  and  not  a  part  of 

^  It  is  about  the  same  altitude  as  Iconium  ;  but  no  observation  has 
been  made. 

(228) 


Section  22:  Derbe.  229 

the  kingdom  of  Archelaus  or  of  Antfochus.  Another  pro- 
posed position  for  Derbe  at  the  modern  Divle,  about  twelve 
miles  south-east  of  Serpek — on  the  theory  that  Divle  retains 
the  ancient  name  Derbe  or  Delbeia — is  equally  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  evidence. 

The  only  other  site  that  seems  to  have  any  real  title 
to  consideration  is  Dorla,  a  few  miles  north-west  from 
Gudelisin.  At  that  village,  which  is  given  on  no  map,  and 
seems  never  to  have  been  visited  by  any  traveller  except 
in  1 890,  there  are  many  late  inscriptions  ;  but  we  reached 
it  only  about  sunset,  and  after  hastily  copying  the  in- 
scriptions in  the  failing  light,  we  had  to  hurry  on  our 
journey  in  the  darkness.  This  place  requires  further 
examination.  It  is  so  near  Gudelisin  that  the  same 
reasoning  applies  to  both  nearly  equally  well  ;  and  it 
would  make  no  real  difference  to  us,  if  hereafter  Derbe 
had  to  be  moved  to  Dorla. 

In  Lycaonia  epigraphy  has  furnished  hardly  any  infor- 
mation except  near  Iconium  and  Laodiceia.  Elsewhere 
inscriptions  are  very  rare  and  insignificant.  No  decrees 
of  cities  have  been  found.  Part  of  the  reason  for  the 
dearth  probably  lies  in  the  higher  value  that  attaches  to 
good  stones  in  a  region  where  quarries  are  distant :  good 
inscribed  stones  were  used  up  in  the  numerous  stately 
buildings  of  the  Seljuk  Turks. 

Thus  the  chief  source  from  which  the  history  of  Derbe 
might  be  reconstructed  fails  entirely. 

The  form  Derbe  represents  a  native  Lycaonian  name 
as  adapted  to  Greek  pronunciation.  Stephanus  mentions 
that  Delbeia  was  another  form  of  the  name.  In  the  Bezan 
Codex  jdov^ipco<i,  Doverius,  is  read  instead  of  Aepfialof;  in 
Acts  XX  4  ;  and  this  is  apparently  a  form  of  the  ethnic, 


230  Historical  Introduction. 

implying  that  Doubera  or  Dovera  was  a  way  of  pronoun- 
cing the  Lycaonian  name.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
Greeks  found  the  greatest  difficulty  in  pronouncing  many 
native  Anatolian  names,  in  which  V  or  W  was  an  element, 
representing  it  by  ov  or  /3  or  0,  or  even  omitting  it ;  the 
difficulty  was  enhanced  if  the  name  contained  also  R  or 
L  ;  and  an  additional  complication  was  caused  by  the  varia- 
tion of  vowel  sound  between  U  and  I  or  E  characteristic 
of  Anatolia  (as,  e.g.,  Soublaion,  Seiblia,  Siblia  are  varieties 
of  one  name). 

Hence  Duvera  or  Duvra  or  Dubra  are  possible  variations 
of  Derbe  or  Delbeia  ;  and  the  explorer  asks  whether 
the  village  name  Duwer  (common  at  the  present  day) 
may  be  a  survival  of  the  old  Dubra :  the  name,  however, 
is  said  by  the  peasants  to  be  a  Turkish  word  meaning 
"  wall  ". 

From  the  supposed  Dubra  might  come  the  ethnic  Dubrios 
or  Aov^kpio<i. 

The  thick,  indistinct  pronunciation  of  the  Anatolian 
peasants  remains  a  great  difficulty  to  the  explorer  at  the 
present  day,  and  the  ear  requires  long  practice  to  catch  the 
sounds  correctly.  Hence  the  extraordinary  misrepresenta- 
tion of  names  by  many  travellers  while  inexperienced  :  the 
simple  Turkish  name  Yuvalik  appears  in  some  archaeologi- 
cal works  as  Djouk-Ovarlak  :  in  1882  I  found  it  impossible 
after  many  repetitions  to  feel  sure  whether  the  first  sound  in 
the  monosyllabic  name  of  a  village  near  Kybistra  was  P 
or  K  or  T.  The  same  coarse,  rough,  uneducated  pronun- 
ciation characterised  the  people  of  the  plateau  in  ancient 
time,  and  was  part  of  the  reason  why  there  was  such  a 
broad  division  between  those  who  had  learned  Greek  pro- 
nunciation and  accent  and  those  who  had  not.    The  Hellene, 


Section  22:  Derbe.  231 

i.e.^  the  educated  person,  was  recognised  by  the  first  word 
he  spoke. 

This  is  one  of  the  fundamental  facts  in  the  life  of  Asia 
Minor  at  the  time  when  Paul  visited  it — one  of  the  things 
that  is  brought  home  to  us  so  clearly  by  modern  facts — one 
that  the  scholar  who  studies  the  ancient  history  of  the 
country  must  fix  deep  in  his  memory  as  a  foundation  to 
build  upon. 

Gudelisin  occupies  a  very  important  position  near  a 
great  road,  close  to  the  natural  frontier  between  the  two 
districts  of  which  Laranda  and  Iconium  are  respectively 
capitals.  Hence  Strabo  speaks  of  it  as  a  point  of 
boundary.^  It  has  therefore  been  described  in  previous 
works  ^  as  the  frontier  city  of  the  Province  Galatia,  all 
beyond  it  to  the  east  belonging  to  the  realm  of  Antiochus. 
That  Derbe  was  a  Roman  frontier  city  is  confirmed  by 
the  brief  description  which  Stephanus  of  Byzantium  gives 
of  it.  He  calls  it  a  fortress  of  Isauria  and  a  custom.s 
station  :  ^  it  was  a  station  for  customs  at  the  frontier  of  the 
Province  beside  a  great  trade  route. 

Derbe  was  close  to  the  Isaurian  mountains,  which  rise 
boldly  from  the  plain  just  behind  Zosta,  and  hence  the 
inaccurate  expression  "  a  fortress  of  Isauria ".  Strabo 
correctly  says  it  was  "  on  the  flanks  of  the  Isaurican  region," 
and  goes  on  to  describe  it  as  "  adhering  (like  a  barnacle) 

1  ftf'xpi  A«>^7?$')  P-  535- 

2  Church  in  Rom.  Emp.,  p.  55 ;  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  120. 

*  (f>povpt.ov  'laavpim  (cat  Xifirjv :  many  writers,  taking  Xififjv  as  a 
"  harbour,"  conjectured  that  Xipvrj  was  the  true  reading.  Xip-rjv  also 
meant  a  "  market "  in  Paphos,  Crete,  Thessaly  (see  Steph.  Thesaurus) ; 
the  Limenes  or  customs  stations  of  Asia  are  often  mentioned  in  in- 
scriptions. See  Wilhelm  in  Arch.  Epigr.  Mitth.  Oest.,  1897,  p.  76, 
Rostowzew,  ib.,  1896,  p.  127. 


232  Historical  Introduction. 

to  Cappadocia  " :  ^  that  seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  the  fact 
that  at  one  time  it  was  the  frontier  town  of  the  Eleventh 
Strategia  attached  to  Cappadocia :  see  section  7. 

In  the  Galatic  Province  about  A.D.  40-60  the  importance 
of  Derbe  lay  mainly  in  its  relation  to  the  dependent 
kingdom  of  Antiochus.  Doubtless,  there  would  arise 
frontier  questions  calling  for  the  decision  of  the  Roman 
governor ;  and  these  questions  would  have  their  centre  at 
Derbe.  Hence  it  probably  was  that  the  city  was  honoured 
with  the  title  Claudio-Derbe,  which  is  practically  equivalent 
to  Imperial  Derbe  :  see  p.  218.  This  occurred  either  in 
41  or  soon  after ;  and  it  was  probably  as  a  compensation 
for  the  compliment  to  an  inferior  city  that  Iconium  was 
permitted  a  similar  title  Claud-Iconium  by  the  same 
Emperor, 

In  "  Imperial  Derbe "  the  feeling  of  superiority  to  the 
non-Roman  Lycaones  across  the  frontier  would  be  pecu- 
liarly strong,  because  the  city  was  in  closer  relations  than 
other  Lycaonians  with  them. 

Derbe  was  detached  from  Galatia  and  included  in  the 
Triple  Eparchy  ^  about  A.D.  137,  and  struck  coins  naming 
the  Koinon  of  the  Lycaonians.  From  about  295  to  372  it 
was  part  of  the  Province  Isauria,  as  Stephanus  says  (pro- 
bably on  the  authority  of  Ammianus).^  Thereafter  it  was 
in  the  Province  Lycaonia. 

^  eiriiTfipvKOS  Tfj  KaTTTTaSoKiq.  ^  See  p.  177' 

^  Compare  p.  178. 


SECTION  23. 

SUMMARY. 

The  most  important  political  and  social  facts  to  observe 
in  the  central  districts  of  Asia  Minor,  when  Paul  entered 
it,  are — 

1.  The  vigour  of  Roman  administration  :  it  was  after- 
wards relaxed,  but  the  Pauline  history  is  true  to  the  facts 
of  A.D.  40-60. 

2.  The  steady  spread,  through  natural  causes,  of  a  uniform 
Hellenic  form  of  civilisation  and  law  throughout  Asia 
Minor,  first  in  the  cities,  later  in  the  villages  and  rustic 
districts  :  as  a  rule,  the  villages  on  the  south  of  the  plateau 
begin  to  be  Hellenised  only  in  the  third  century,  in  the 
north  only  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 

3.  The  alliance  of  Roman  and  Greek  influence  in  diffus- 
ing a  mixed  Graeco-Roman  system  of  social  and  political 
ideas. 

4.  The  line  along  which  this  Graeco-Roman  influence 
moved  :  before  A.D.  285  the  southern  route  from  inner  Asia 
through  Ephesus  to  Rome,  affecting  the  south  side  of  the 
plateau :  after  285  the  northern  route  from  inner  Asia 
through  Ancyra  to  Constantinople,  placing  North  Galatia 
in  the  van  of  progress. 

5.  The  character  and  influence  of  the  native  religion  and 
social   system   in    Asia    Minor,    fundamentally   the   same 

(233) 


234  Section  2^  :  Summary. 

everywhere,   everywhere    opposed    to    the    Graeco-Roman 
civilisation. 

6.  The  struggle  between  East  and  West,  Asia  and 
Europe,  which  is  always  going  on  in  Asia  Minor  in  forms 
that  change  from  century  to  century :  in  the  time  of  Paul 
it  was  mainly  between  the  native  religion  and  the  Graeco- 
Roman  civilisation  (Christianity,  on  the  whole,  being  on  the 
side  of  the  latter). 

7.  The  contrast  of  the  plateau  and  the  western  coast- 
lands  of  Asia  Minor,  the  former  tending  towards  the 
European  type,  the  latter  towards  the  Asiatic. 

8.  The  essential  continuity  of  character  in  the  people  of 
Asia  Minor  from  immemorial  antiquity  down  to  the  present 
day  according  to  the  two  types,  plateau  and  west  coast- 
lands  :  the  people  as  they  are  now  offer  the  best  introduc- 
tion to  the  study  of  the  people  as  they  were  in  A.D.  40-60. 


HISTORICAL   COMMENTARY 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS. 


THE    INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS.^ 

In  any  judicious  system  of  interpretation,  great  stress  must 
be  laid  on  the  introductory  address  of  this  Epistle.  It 
should  be  compared  with  the  address  prefixed  to  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  a  letter  which  presents  marked 
analogies  in  sentiment  and  topics.  In  each  case  Paul  puts 
in  his  introduction  the  marrow  of  the  whole  letter.  He 
says  at  first  in  a  few  words  what  he  is  going  to  say  at  length 
in  the  body  of  the  letter,  to  repeat  over  and  over,  to  em- 
phasise from  various  points  of  view,  and  to  drive  home  into 
the  minds  of  his  correspondents. 

The  important  fact,  upon  which  the  whole  letter  turns, 
is  that  Paul  had  been  a  messenger  straight  from  God  to 
the  Galatians.  His  message,  as  delivered  originally  to 
them,  had  been  a  message  coming  from  God.  No  subse- 
quent variation  or  change  of  message  on  the  part  of  any 
person,  himself  or  others,  could  affect  that  fundamental 
truth ;  and  that  fact  has  to  be  made  to  live  and  burn  in 
their  minds.      Hence  he  begins  by  calling   himself  "an 

1  In  the  first  draft  of  this  Commentary,  reference  was  frequently 
made  to  Lightfoot  and  to  Zockler,  as  representatives  of  EngHsh  and 
German  opinion.  Subsequently,  a  few  references  have  been  added 
to  the  latest  edition  of  Meyer's  Commentary  by  Professor  Sieffert, 
1899. 

(237) 


238  The  Introductory  Address. 


apostle,  not  from  men,  neither  through  man,  but  through 
Jesus  Christ  and  God  the  father  ". 

Next  he  mentions  those  who  join  with  him  as  the  authors 
of  the  Epistle.  He  often  quotes  one  or  two  individuals  as 
joint-senders  of  a  letter.  Here,  and  here  alone,  he  states 
that  all  the  brethren  who  are  with  him  are  sending  the 
letter  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia.  This  important  point 
calls  for  special  consideration  in  §  H. 

Thereafter  he  introduces  the  second  leading  thought  of 
the  whole  Epistle — that  the  action  and  person  of  Christ  is 
sufficient  for  salvation.  And  so  he  adds  "  who  gave  Himself 
for  our  sins,  that  He  might  deliver  us  out  of  this  present 
evil  world  ". 

II 

THE  EPISTLE  AUTHORISED   BY  THE  CHURCH  IN  ANTIOCH. 

With  regard  to  the  persons  who  are  mentioned  in  a  letter 
of  Paul's  as  sending  messages  or  salutations  to  the  persons 
addressed,  a  clear  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  those 
who  are  mentioned  at  the  beginning  and  those  who  are 
mentioned  at  the  end.  Salutations  at  the  end  of  a  letter 
are  expressive  of  love,  good-will,  sympathy  and  interest. 
Thus,  hosts  of  well-wishers  send  greetings  to  the  Romans, 
to  the  Corinthians,  to  the  Philippians,  to  Timothy  (along 
with  whom  must  be  included  the  Churches  which  he  re- 
presented), etc. 

But  persons  who  join  in  the  address  prefixed  to  a  letter 
are  persons  whose  authorisation  is  required  and  conveyed 
in  it.  They  are  indicated  as  joint-authors.  The  letter 
(though  composed  by  Paul)  is  the  letter  of  Paul  and  those 
named  with  him.      These  all  stamp  with  their  authority 


Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch.     239 

what  is  said  in  the  letter.  Accordingly,  where  Paul 
associates  any  one  with  himself  in  the  prefatory  superscrip- 
tion of  his  letters,  it  is  always  some  person  who  stands  in 
a  position  of  authority  towards  those  addressed. 

In  Romans,  Ephesians,  Timothy,  Titus,  Paul  speaks  alone. 
No  person  shares  with  him  in  the  authoritative  address. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  those  cases  it  would  be  hard  to  find 
any  person  whose  name  could  authoritatively  have  been 
conjoined  with  his  own  by  Paul.  To  the  Romans  Aquila, 
perhaps,  but  we  cannot  be  sure.  Moreover,  Aquila  pro- 
bably was  not  with  Paul  in  Corinth  when  he  wrote. 

It  belongs  to  that  fine  courtesy  which  was  part  of  the 
fabric  of  St.  Paul's  mind,  that  he  never  omitted  to  recognise 
in  the  fullest  degree  the  authority  that  belonged  to  another. 
When  he  writes  to  a  community  in  the  conversion  and 
organisation  of  which  any  of  his  coadjutors  and  subordin- 
ates had  played  an  important  part,  he  desired  to  acknow- 
ledge in  his  address  the  position  which  that  person  occupied 
towards  the  young  congregation.  If  the  coadjutor  was  in 
his  company  and  could  stamp  with  his  authority  the  message 
that  has  to  be  sent,  Paul  wrote  in  their  joint  name. 

Thus  Silas  and  Timothy  had  gone  with  him  to  Philippi 
and  to  Thessalonica  in  the  beginning.  Both  the  letters 
that  were  sent  to  the  Church  in  Thessalonica  begin  "  Paul 
and  Silvanus  and  Timothy ".  Even  the  polite  and  more 
dignified  name  Silvanus  is  used,  not  the  familiar  Silas. 

The  letter  to  the  Philippians  was  sent  in  the  name  of 
Paul  and  Timothy.  From  the  omission  of  Silas  we 
might  confidently  infer  that  he  was  not  with  Paul  when 
the  letter  was  written — an  inference  that  accords  with  all 
other  evidence. 

Timothy,  who  rejoined  Paul  in  Corinth  shortly  after  he 


240     Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch. 

went  there  (Acts  XVIII  5),  is  associated  with  him  in  the 
second  Epistle.  Silas,  who  was  in  company  with  Paul 
and  Timothy  at  Gorinth  on  the  second  journey,  is  never 
mentioned  on  the  third  journey.^ 

Timothy  was  probably  the  leading  messenger  to  Colossae 
in  the  beginning.^  He  joins  in  the  letters  to  the  Colos- 
sians  and  to  Philemon  who  resided  at  Colossae. 

But  in  the  circular  letter,  written  probably  at  the  same 
time  as  Colossians  to  the  other  Asian  Churches,  Timothy 
is  not  mentioned.^  He  had  not  the  same  right  to  speak  to 
them,  and  his  name  could  not  carry  the  same  weight  to 
them.  Probably  various  coadjutors  had  been  sent  to  the 
great  Asian  cities  ;  and  just  as  courtesy  to  Timothy  seemed 
to  Paul  to  require  his  name  in  the  address  to  the  Colos- 
sians, so  courtesy  towards  the  Smyrnaeans  and  the  Sardians 
prevented  Paul  from  putting  Timothy  in  a  position  of 
authority  towards  them. 

Sosthenes  was  evidently  a  leading  member  of  the  Cor- 
inthian Church  ;  possibly  he  had  formerly  been  a  chief  of 
the  synagogue.  He  was  in  Ephesus  when  Paul  wrote 
first  to  the  Corinthians ;  and  the  letter  is  from  "  Paul  and 
Sosthenes  the  brother".  Timothy  is  not  mentioned,  be- 
cause he  was  absent  on  a  mission  at  the  time. 

The  instances  are  not  numerous  enough  to  establish  by 
themselves  a  rule  ;  but  the  rule  is  obvious  and  necessary 
from  the  nature  of  the  situation,  and  the  instances  show 
how  the  rule  is  worked  out  in  practice. 

1  Not  that  he  had  left  Paul's  association,  but  more  probably  that 
he  was  detached  on  special  service. 

"^  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  274.  There  is  no  direct  evidence  to  that 
effect. 

3  Eph.  I  I. 


Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch.     241 

If  other  persons  were  this  way  associated  by  Paul  with 
himself,  no  one  probably  will  imagine  that  their  assent 
was  merely  assumed  by  Paul.  He,  doubtless,  communi- 
cated to  them  what  he  was  writing  ;  and  their  name 
guarantees  their  full  approval  of  the  letter  with  all  that  it 
contains. 

Hence  we  may  infer  : — 

(i)  In  some  or  in  many  cases  the  introductory  address, 
like  the  preface  to  a  book,  was  the  last  thing  composed. 

(2)  When  a  person  who  stood  in  a  position  of  authority 
to  a  Church  is  not  named  in  the  opening  of  a  letter  to  the 
Church,  he  was  not  in  company  with  Paul  at  the  time. 

In  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  the  authors  are  "  Paul 
and  all  the  brethren  which  are  with  me  ". 

The  phrase,  "  all  the  brethren  which  are  with  me,"  arrests 
our  attention.  Paul  wrote  in  some  place  where  there  was 
a  considerable  body  of  Christians  ;  and  we  may  confidently 
say  that  that  implies  one  or  other  of  the  cities  where  there 
were  churches.  The  words  used  by  Dr.  Zockler  to  describe 
the  situation  in  which  Paul  wrote  are  so  good,  that  we 
may  leave  it  to  him  to  express  what  is  implied  in  this 
phrase.  As  he  has  been  so  prominent  an  adversary  of 
the  South  Galatian  theory,  no  one  will  be  able  to  charge 
me  with  straining  Paul's  words  to  suit  my  own  view.  He 
says  :  "  The  whole  body  of  fellow  Christians  who  were 
with  him  at  the  time  in ^  (not  merely  his  more  promi- 
nent helpers)  are  mentioned  by  St.  Paul  as  those  who  join 
with  him  in  greeting  the  Galatians.  He  does  this  in  order 
to  give  the  more  emphasis  to  what  he  has  to  say  to  them. 

^  Dr.  Zockler  names  "  Ephesus "  here,  without  hesitation,  con- 
formably to  his  theory,  which  is  the  commonly  received  view  among 
North  Galatian  critics. 

16 


242     Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch. 

He  writes  indeed  with  his  own  hand  (VI  13),  but  in  the 
name  of  a  whole  great  Christian  community.  The  warn- 
ings and  exhortations  which  are  to  be  addressed  to  the 
Galatians  go  forth  from  a  body  whose  authority  cannot  be 
hghtly  regarded."     But  on  VI  13  see  §  LX. 

The  Church  which  here  addresses  the  Galatians,  there- 
fore, is  one  which  was  closely  connected  with  them,  whose 
opinion  would  be  authoritative  among  them,  one  which 
could  add  impressiveness  even  to  a  letter  of  Paul's.  What 
congregation  stood  in  this  relation  to  the  Galatians  ?  Not 
the  Ephesians,  nor  the  Corinthians,  later  converts,  who 
are  not  mentioned  in  the  addresses  of  the  letters  that  are 
known  to  have  been  written  among  them  (Rom.,  i  Cor.). 
Only  two  congregations  could  add  weight  to  this  particular 
letter — Jerusalem  and  Antioch.  The  former  is,  for  many 
reasons,  out  of  the  question  ;  but  Antioch  is,  from  every 
point  of  view,  specially  suitable  and  impressive.  It  was 
the  brethren  at  Antioch  who  chose  out  Barnabas  and  Saul 
for  the  work,  in  the  course  of  which  the  Galatians  were 
converted.  To  the  Galatians  Antioch  was  their  Mother- 
Church,  and  it  would  be  specially  effective  among  the 
Galatians  that  all  the  brethren  who  were  at  Antioch  joined 
in  the  letter. 

That  Antioch  was  the  place  where  the  letter  to  the 
Galatians  was  written  is  confirmed  by  another  consideration. 
It  was  probably  there  that  Paul  first  received  the  news 
about  the  Galatian  defection.  As  is  shown  in  St.  Paul  the 
Traveller,  p.  189  f,  Paul's  movements  after  his  second  visit 
to  Galatia  were  so  strange,  so  perplexing,  so  entirely  un- 
foreseen and  unintentional,  that  he  is  not  likely  to  have 
been  able  to  communicate  with  the  Galatians.  Not  until 
he  was,  after  a  long  period  of  uncertainty,  ordered  to  remain 


Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch.     243 

in  Corinth,  had  he  any  fixity.  Among  those  who  were 
with  him  Timothy  was  the  most  natural  messenger ;  and 
Timothy,  who  came  to  him  some  weeks  after  his  first 
entrance  into  Corinth,  remained  there  long  enough  to  take 
the  position  implied  by  his  being  named  as  joint-author^ 
of  the  Second  Epistle.  It  is  therefore  impossible  that 
Timothy  could  have  gone  to  Galatia  and  returned  to  Corinth 
with  the  news.  Probably  he  sailed  with  Paul  to  Ephesus, 
Acts  XVIII  18,  went  thence  up  to  Galatia,  and  met  Paul 
in  Syrian  Antioch  with  news. 

The  place  of  origin  throws  light  on  the  Epistle  as  a 
whole.  In  the  first  place,  if  the  Church  of  Antioch  shared 
in  it,  the  letter  must  have  been  publicly  read  and  approved 
— either  before  the  whole  Church,  or  more  probably  before 
its  representatives — before  it  was  despatched.  Few,  I 
imagine,  will  suppose  that  Paul  merely  assumed  that  all 
who   were   with    him   agreed    in    his  sentiments  ^  without 

^  Not  implying  that  he  helped  to  compose  the  letter. 

"^  Thus,  for  example,  the  salutation  of  "  all  the  Churches  "  in  Rom. 
XVI  16,  means  the  salutation  of  the  representatives  enumerated, 
Acts  XX  4,  who  were  in  company  with  Paul  as  he  wrote.  Incident- 
ally, it  may  be  noted  that  this  proves  that  the  long  list  of  greetings 
in  Rom.  XVI  was  really  addressed  to  the  Roman.  Church,  and  not, 
according  to  a  well-known  theory,  to  the  Church  of  Ephesus.  It  is 
surely  by  a  slip  that  Dr.  Sanday  and  Mr.  Headlam  fail  to  notice  the 
meaning  of  this  salutation,  and  say,  "it  is  a  habit  of  St.  Paul  to 
speak  on  behalf  of  the  Churches  as  a  whole,"  quoting,  in  support  of 
this  statement,  Rom.  XVI  4  ;  i  Cor.  VII  17,  XIV  zi ;  2  Cor.  VIII  r8, 
XI  28.  In  none  of  these  places  does  Paul  speak  in  the  name  of  the 
Churches,  except  Rom.  XVI  4,  where  he  has  the  same  justification, 
that  representatives  of  the  Churches  were  with  him  :  in  the  other 
cases  he  merely  mentions  facts  about  "  all  the  Churches  ".  Further, 
this  shows  that  all  the  delegates  assembled  at  Corinth,  disproving 
the  view  suggested  in  my  St.  Paul,  p.  287  (abandoned  in  German 
translation). 


244     Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch. 

consulting  them  :  those  who  thus  conceive  the  character  of 
Paul  differ  so  radically  from  me  that  discussion  of  the  point 
between  us  would  be  unprofitable.  Accordingly,  we  must 
understand  that  the  history  as  well  as  the  sentiment  con- 
tained in  this  Epistle  were  guaranteed  by  the  whole  Church 
of  Antioch. 

In  the  second  place,  this  origin  explains  why  it  is  that 
Antioch,  which  was  so  closely  associated  with  the  evangeli- 
sation of  Galatia,  is  not  formally  alluded  to  in  the  body  of 
the  letter.  The  Epistle  is  apt  to  produce  on  the  modern 
reader  a  certain  painful  impression,  as  not  recognising  the 
right  of  Antioch  to  some  share  in  the  championship  of 
freedom.  Antioch  had  taken  a  very  prominent  and  honour- 
able part  in  the  struggle  for  freedom ;  yet,  on  the  ordinary 
theory  of  origin,  it  is  not  alluded  to  in  this  letter,  except 
to  point  out  that  every  Jew  in  Antioch  betrayed  on  one 
occasion  the  cause  of  freedom.  Considering  what  Antioch 
had  done  for  Christianity  and  for  Paul,  every  one  who 
follows  the  ordinary  theory  must,  I  think,  feel  a  pang  of 
regret  in  Paul's  interest  that  he  did  not  by  some  word  or 
expression  give  more  generous  recognition  to  her  services. 
In  a  letter,  in  which  he  speaks  so  much  about  the  actual 
details  of  the  struggle,  he  seems,  on  that  view,  to  speak 
only  of  his  own  services,  and  hardly  at  all  to  allude  to  the 
services  of  others.  But  when  all  Antiochian  Christians  are 
associated  with  the  Apostle  as  issuing  this  authoritative 
letter,  we  feel  that  the  Church  of  Antioch  is  placed  in  the 
honourable  position  which  she  had  earned. 

It  is  true  that  Paul  does  not  mention  Antioch  in  writing 
to  the  Romans.  But,  in  that  Epistle,  though  the  subject 
and  treatment  are  in  some  respects  so  similar,  there  is  not 
the  same  need  or  opening  for  mentioning  Antioch,  because 


Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch.     245 

the  subject  is  handled  in  a  general  and  philosophical  way,  not 
in  the  personal  and  individual  style  which  rules  in  Galatians. 

What  a  flood  of  light  does  this  origin  throw  on  the  his- 
tory of  Antioch  and  early  Christianity !  It  shows  us  the 
congregation  of  Antioch  standing  side  by  side  with  Paul, 
sharing  in  his  views,  his  difficulties,  and  his  struggles  for 
freedom.  The  Jewish  Christians  in  Antioch  had  all  ap- 
parently become  united  by  this  time  with  the  Gentiles  in 
sympathy  with  Paul,  just  as  Barnabas  and  Peter  had  been. 
This  in  itself  is  an  anwer  to  those  who  ^  blame  Paul  entirely 
for  the  separation  between  Jews  and  Christians.  The 
mingled  conciliation  (as  in  Acts  XV  30,  31,  and  XVI  3,  4) 
and  firmness  of  Paul  gradually  produced  a  unity  of  Jewish 
and  Gentile  Christians  throughout  Asia  Minor  ^  and  the 
Antiochian  district. 

The  mischief  caused  by  the  North  Galatian  theory  is  not 
merely  that  it  produces  erroneous  ideas  on  many  points, 
but  that  it  shuts  the  eyes  to  many  other  points.  Here,  for 
example,  it  deprives  us  of  all  evidence  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment for  the  feeling  that  existed  between  Paul  and  the 
Antiochian  Church  after  the  events  narrated  in  Acts  XV 
and  Galatians  II  ff 

It  will  hardly  be  advanced  as  an  argument  against 
Antioch  as  the  place  of  origin  that  Syria  and  Antioch  are 
mentioned  in  the  letter  by  name,  and  that  Paul  does  not 
say  "hither"  in  place  of  "to  Antioch,"  II  i  r.  In  i  Corin- 
thians, which  was  written  at  Ephesus,  he  used  the  expression, 
"  at  Ephesus,"  and  mentions  "  Asia  ". 

^  For  example,  Mr.  Baring  Gould's  interesting  Study  of  St.  Paul. 

^  Reasons  for  this  view  are  stated  in  chaps.  XII,  XV,  XVII  of  my 
Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  on  the  history  of  the  Christians  and 
the  Jews  in  Phrygia. 


246     Epistle  Authorised  by  the  Church  in  Antioch. 

Dr.  Clemen  has  rightly  recognised  the  force  that  lies  in 
the  phrase,  "  all  the  brethren  with  me,"  and  he  explains  it 
by  dating  the  composition  of  Galatians  immediately  after 
Romans,  when  all  the  delegates  of  the  Churches  were  with 
Paul.^  It  may  be  fully  granted  that  this  would  explain 
quite  satisfactorily  the  use  of  the  phrase  ;  but  other  con- 
siderations prevent  us  from  accepting  so  late  a  date  for  the 
letter. 

Ill 
PERSONS  MENTIONED  IN  THE  EPISTLE. 

The  persons  mentioned  by  name  in  the  Epistle  are  Titus, 
Cephas  Peter,  James,  John  and  Barnabas. 

Titus  was  evidently  unknown  to  the  Galatians.  The 
point  of  Paul's  reference  to  him  turns  on  his  nationality. 
He  was  a  Greek,  and  this  is  carefully  explained  in  II  3,  so 
that  the  readers  may  not  fail  to  catch  the  drift  of  the 
argument.  Had  the  Galatians  known  Titus,  had  he  accom- 
panied Paul  on  a  journey  and  been  familiar  to  them,  the 
explanation  would  have  been  unnecessary ;  and  in  this 
Epistle  there  is  not  a  single  unnecessary  word. 

It  is  assumed  that  the  Galatians  know  that  Cephas  and 
Peter  were  the  same  person  ;  but  we  cannot  suppose  that 
they  were  converted  without  learning  who  the  Twelve 
Apostles  were ;  and,  even  if  Paul  and  Barnabas  had  not 
made  the  Apostles  known  to  them,  the  Judaising  emissaries 
would  have  done  so,  as  the  whole  burden  of  their  argument 
was  that  James,  Peter,  etc.,  were  superior  in  authority  to 
Paul.     Yet,  even  as  regards  the  three,  James  and  Cephas 

1  See  footnote  on  p.  243. 


Persons  Mentioned  in  the  Epistle.  247 

and  John,  the  point  on  which  the  argument  turns — "they 
who  were  reputed  to  be  pillars  " — is  made  clear  and  explicit. 
Some  knowledge  about  the  Apostles  is  assumed  ;  but  the 
crucial  point  is  expressed,  and  not  merely  assumed. 

Barnabas,  however,  is  mentioned  simply  by  name,  and 
it  is  assumed  that  his  personality  was  familiar  to  the 
Galatians — "  even  Barnabas  was  carried  away  ".  The  whole 
point  in  this  expression  lies  in  Barnabas's  staunch  champion- 
ship of  Gentile  rights :  it  presupposes  a  knowledge  of  his 
action  and  views.  Paul,  who  even  explains  that  James, 
Peter  and  John  were  the  leading  Apostles,  assumes  that 
Barnabas  is  so  familiar,  that  his  argument  will  be  caught 
without  any  explanation.  There  is  only  one  set  of  con- 
gregations among  whom  it  could  be  assumed  that  Barnabas 
was  better  known  than  Peter  and  James  and  John.  Paul 
was  writing  to  the  Galatians,  whom  Barnabas  and  he  had 
converted,  and  among  whom  Barnabas  had  spent  many 
months. 

We  must  conclude  that  Barnabas  was  known  to  the 
Galatians,  while  Titus  was  unknown  to  them. 

Now  it  is  argued  in  my  St.  Paul,  p.  285,  that  Titus  was 
taken  by  Paul  with  him  on  his  third  journey  (Acts  XVIII 
23).  After  that  journey,  when  Titus  had  spent  a  good 
many  weeks  among  the  Galatians,  it  would  not  have  been 
necessary  to  explain  to  them  that  he  was  a  Greek.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  was  a  telling  sequel  to  the  Epistle  that 
Titus,  who  is  quoted  as  an  example  to  the  Galatians,  and 
who  was  of  course  one  of  "  the  brethren  which  are  with  me  " 
and  associated  in  the  Epistle,  should  personally  visit  the 
Galatians  along  with  Paul  on  his  next  journey.  There  is 
a  natural  connection  between  the  prominence  of  Titus  in 
Paul's  mind  during  this  Galatian  crisis  and  the  selection  of 


248  Persons  Mentioned  in  the  Epistle. 

him  as  companion  among  the  Galatians.  One  might  almost 
be  prepared  to  find  that,  when  Paul  went  on  to  Ephesus, 
Titus  was  left  behind  for  a  time  in  Galatia,  confirming  the 
churches  and  organising  the  contribution  ;  and  that  there- 
after he  rejoined  Paul  at  Ephesus  in  time  to  be  sent  on  a 
mission  for  a  similar  purpose  to  Corinth. 

Now,  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  North  Galatian  theory. 
It  is  certain  that,  according  to  that  view,  Barnabas  was 
personally  unknown  to  the  North  Galatians,  while  there 
is  a  considerable  probability  that  Titus  (who  was  with  Paul 
in  Ephesus)  had  accompanied  him  all  the  way  from  Ephesus, 
and  was  therefore  known  to  them.  The  North  Galatian 
view  leaves  the  tone  of  the  references  an  insoluble  difficulty. 

IV 
RELATION  OF  PAUL  TO  BARNABAS. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  Paul  is  very  niggardly  here 
in  recognition  of  Bamabas's  work  as  a  champion  of  Gentile 
rights.  But  Paul  was  not  writing  a  history  for  the  igno- 
rant ;  he  assumes  throughout  that  the  Galatians  knew  the 
services  of  Barnabas.  The  single  phrase  "  even  Barnabas  " 
is  a  sufficient  answer  to  that  charge.  The  one  word  "  even  " 
recalls  the  whole  past  to  the  interested  readers  ;  it  places 
Barnabas  above  Peter  in  this  respect.  Peter  had  re- 
cognised the  apostolate  to  the  Gentiles  :  Peter  had  eaten 
with  the  Gentiles  :  but  his  dissembling,  after  all  that,  was 
not  so  extraordinary  a  thing  as  that  "  even  Barnabas  was 
carried  away  with  the  dissimulation  "  of  the  other  Jews. 
That  one  sentence  places  Barnabas  on  a  pedestal  as  a 
leading  champion  of  the  Gentiles  ;  and  yet  it  does  not 


"/  MarveC  249 


explicitly  state  that ;  it  merely  assumes  the  knowledge  of 
his  championship  among  the  Galatians. 

Further,  where  Paul  speaks  of  his  first  journey,  i.e.,  his 
Gospel  to  the  Galatians,^  he  uses  the  plural  pronoun  :  "  any 
Gospel  other  than  that  which  we  preached  unto  you  "  (I  8) ; 
"as  zve  have  said  before,  so  say  I  now  again  "  (I  9). 

The  Galatians  caught  the  meaning  of  "  we  "  in  these 
cases  as  "  Barnabas  and  I  ".  On  the  other  hand,  where 
the  reference  is  to  the  division  which  had  now  come  into 
existence  between  the  Galatians  and  their  evangelist,  Bar- 
nabas is  not  included,  and  the  singular  pronoun  is  used 
(IV  12  ff).  There  was  no  alienation  between  the  Gala- 
tians and  Barnabas,  for  Barnabas  had  not  returned  to  them  ; 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  it  was  through  perversion  and  through 
real  misunderstanding  of  Paul's  conduct  on  his  second 
journey  that  the  division  arose. 


"  I  MARVEL." 

After  the  introductory  address — the  heading  of  the  letter, 
so  to  say — Paul  usually  begins  the  body  of  the  letter  with 
an  expression  of  thanks  (so  Rom.,  i  Cor.,  Phil.,  Col.,  i  and 
2  Thess.,  2  Tim.,  Philem.),  or  of  blessing  (so  2  Cor.,  Eph.) 
— some  acknowledgment  of  the  Divine  care  and  kindness 
in  respect  of  his  correspondents  and  himself. 

In  so  doing  he  was  following  the  customary  polite  form 
in  ordinary  Greek  letters.     In  those  letters,  after  the  super- 

^  It  is  important  to  observe  that  when  Paul  speaks  of  the  Gospel 
to  the  Galatians,  he  means  the  message  which  converted  them,  i.e.. 
on  his  first  visit. 


250  "/  Marvel:' 

scription  giving  the  names  and  titles  of  the  writer  and  of 
the  person  or  persons  addressed,  there  was  usually  added 
some  acknowledgment  of  the  Divine  power,  such  as :  "  if 
you  are  well  and  successful,  it  would  be  in  accordance  with 
my  constant  prayer  to  the  Gods:"  or  "before  all  things  I 
pray  that  you  may  be  in  health  ; "  but  in  case  of  haste, 
eagerness,  excitement  or  anger,  this  conventional  part  of 
the  letter  was  often  omitted.  Now  "courtesy  of  address 
to  all  was  valued  by  Paul  as  an  element  in  the  religious 
life  ;  and  he  advised  his  pupils  to  learn  from  the  surrounding 
world  everything  that  was  worthy  in  it,  ...  '  whatsoever 
is  courteous,  whatsoever  is  of  fine  expression,  all  excellence, 
all  merit,  take  account  of  these,'  wherever  you  find  these 
qualities,  notice  them,  imitate  them "}  So  here,  "  it  is 
Paul's  Greek  environment  and  his  Greek  education  that 
are  responsible  for  the  expressions  which  he  uses  ".^  In  all 
his  own  life  and  words,  and  in  all  his  teaching  to  others, 
he  takes  up  "  the  most  gracious  and  polished  tone  of 
educated  society  "  ;  but  as  all  the  forms  of  politeness  and 
courtesy  in  ordinary  life  had  a  religious  tone  and  acknow- 
ledged the  gods,  he  changed  them  so  far  as  to  give  them  a 
Christian  turn  (though  sometimes  the  change  might  almost 
have  been  adopted  by  an  enlightened  pagan),  acknowledg- 
ing God  in  place  of  the  gods. 

The  exceptions  are  i  Timothy  and  Titus  (in  which  he 
plunges  at  once  into  the  important  business  of  Church 
order  and  teaching,  the  cause  of  the  letters) ,  and  the  Gala- 

^  Deissmann,  Bibelstudien,  p.  207  ff ;  Rendel  Harris,  Expositor,  Sept., 
1898,  p.  163  fF;  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  149. 

^  Harris,  loc.  cit.,  p.  165.  So  in  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  149,  "  it  is  the 
educated  citizen  of  the  Roman  world  who  speaks  in  these  and  many 
other  sentences  ". 


"  Ve  are  so  quickly  Removing^^  251 

tian  letter,  which  differs  from  all  others.  Not  merely  is 
there  no  expression  of  thankfulness  ;  Paul  goes  at  once  to 
the  business  in  hand,  "  I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  quickly 
removing,"  and  then  he  pronounces  a  curse  on  any  one, 
man  or  angel  from  heaven,  who  preaches  to  the  Galatians 
"  any  gospel  other  than  that  which  we  preached  unto  you  " 
— ^"  any  gospel  other  than  that  which  ye  received  ".  The 
reference,  of  course,  is  to  the  message  which  converted  the 
Galatians,  the  Gospel  which  originally  called  tKem  from 
darkness  to  light. 

The  intense  feeling  under  which  Paul  was  labouring  is 
shown  by  the  unique  character  of  the  opening,  and  by  the 
strength — one  might  say,  the  violence — of  the  language. 
Anything  that  is  said  in  this  first  paragraph  must  be  under- 
stood as  being  of  overwhelming  importance.  Paul  here 
touches  the  crucial  point  of  the  Galatian  difficulty. 


VI 

"YE  ARE  SO  QUICKLY  REMOVING." 

The  position  of  these  words  in  the  opening  of  the  letter 
shows  that  we  must  lay  the  utmost  stress  on  them.  Paul 
had  evidently  heard  nothing  of  the  steps  by  which  the 
Galatians  had  passed  over  to  the  Judaising  side.  We  may 
assume,  of  course,  that  there  were  steps  :  however  rapidly, 
from  one  point  of  view,  it  came  about,  time  is  required  to 
change  so  completely  the  religion  of  several  cities  so  widely 
separated.  But  Paul  had  heard  nothing  of  the  inter- 
mediate steps.  He  heard  suddenly  that  the  Galatian 
Churches  are  crossing  over  to  the  Judaistic  side.  This 
point  requires  notice. 


252  "  Ve  are  so  quickly  Reiiioving^'' 

In  the  case  of  the  Corinthian  Church,  we  can  trace  in 
the  two  Epistles  the  development  of  the  Judaising  ten- 
dency. In  the  first  Epistle  it  hardly  appears.  The  diffi- 
culties and  errors  which  are  there  mentioned  are  rather 
the  effect  of  the  tone  and  surroundings  of  Hellenic  pagan- 
ism :  lax  morality,  and  a  low  conception  of  purity  and 
duty,  are  more  obvious  than  the  tendency  to  follow  Judais- 
ing teachers.  There  is  a  marked  tendency  in  Paul's  tone 
to  make  allowance  for  the  Judaic  point  of  view  :  the  writer 
is  quite  hopeful  of  maintaining  union  and  friendly  relations 
with  the  Jewish  community.  We  observe  here  much  the 
same  stage  as  that  on  which  the  Galatian  Churches  stood 
at  Paul's  second  visit  (Acts  XVI  1-5) :  then,  also,  Paul  was 
full  of  consideration  for  the  Jews,  hopeful  of  unity,  ready 
to  go  to  the  furthest  possible  point  in  conciliating  them  by 
showing  respect  to  their  prejudices,  delivering  the  Apostolic 
Decree,  and  charging  them  to  observe  its  prohibition  of 
meats  offered  to  idols  and  of  those  indulgences  which  were 
permitted  by  universal  consent  in  pagan  society.  In  i 
Corinthians  his  instruction  is  to  the  same  general  effect, 
though  delivered  with  much  greater  insight  into  the  prac- 
tical bearing  and  the  philosophic  basis  of  the  rules  of  life 
which  he  lays  down.  He  had  learned  in  the  case  of  the 
Galatian  Churches  what  mistaken  conceptions  the  Apos- 
tolic Decree  was  liable  to  rouse,  if  it  were  delivered  to 
his  converts  as  a  law  for  them  to  keep :  he  knew  that,  if 
there  were  any  opening  left,  the  ordinary  man  would 
understand  that  the  Decree  would  be  taken  as  a  sort  of 
preparation  for,  and  imperfect  stage  leading  up  to,  the 
whole  Law.  His  instructions  to  the  Corinthians  are  care- 
fully framed  so  as  to  guard  against  the  evils  which  had 
been  experienced  in  Galatia ;    and  yet  the  principles  and 


"  Ye  are  so  quickly  Removing.''  253 

rules  which  he  lays  down  represent  exactly  his  conception 
of  the  truth  embodied  in  the  Apostolic  Decree.^  The  theme 
in  I  Corinthians  is  the  statement  of  the  moral  and  philoso- 
phical basis  on  which  rested  the  external  and  rather  crude 
rules  embodied  in  that  Decree. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  2  Corinthians  the  old  evils  are 
sensibly  diminished,  to  Paul's  great  joy  and  thankfulness, 
but  a  new  evil  is  coming  in,  viz.,  the  tendency  to  Judaism. 
This,  however,  is  not  yet  so  far  advanced  in  Corinth  as  it 
was  in  Galatia  when  Galatians  was  written.  It  is  only 
beginning.  It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  Romans,  written 
six  or  nine  months  later  than  2  Corinthians,  speaks  of 
the  Judaising  tendency  as  a  danger  in  a  stage  similiar  to 
Galatians  ;  and  Dr.  Drescher,  in  a  most  admirable  article 
in  Theologische  Studien  und  Kritiken,  1897,  p.  i  ff,  remarks 
that  Paul,  in  writing  to  the  Roman  Church,  with  which  he 
had  never  come  into  personal  relations,  and  about  whose 
position  and  difficulties  he  had  only  second-hand  informa- 
tion,^ was  guided  greatly  by  the  circumstances  of  the 
Corinthian  congregation,  in  the  midst  of  which  he  was 
writing.'^  Dr.  Sanday  and  Mr.  Headlam  are,  on  the  whole, 
of  this  opinion.  Corinth,  then,  early  in  57,  was  where 
Galatia  stood  in  53.* 

How,  then,  had  Paul  been  ignorant  of  the  steps  in  the 

^  See  Professor  W.  Lock's  convincing  paper  in  Expositor,  July, 
1897,  p.  65. 

^  Reports  from  Aquila  and  Priscilla  would  not  be  sufficient,  though 
they  may  perhaps  have  elicited  the  letter.  Acts  XXVIII  shows  that 
the  Judaistic  difficulty  had  not  yet  become  serious  in  Rome. 

'  Similarly  his  Ephesian  experiences  influence,  to  some  extent,  the 
tone  of  I  Corinthians  and  the  early  part  of  2  Corinthians. 

•*The  dates  given  in  St.  Paul  the  Trav.  are  assumed,  in  order  to 
show  the  interval. 


254  ''  Ve  are  so  quickly  Removing.'' 

Galatian  defection?  That  was  natural,  on  the  South 
Galatian  view.  The  rapid  and  unforeseeable  changes  of 
his  life  after  his  second  Galatian  visit  made  it  impossible 
for  exchange  of  letters  and  messages  to  take  place.^  Even 
after  he  went  to  Corinth  he  was  still  looking  for  the  ex- 
pected opening  in  Macedonia  (which  he  understood  to  be 
his  appointed  field),  until  the  new  message  was  given  him 
(Acts  XVIII  9). 

But  on  the  North  Galatian  view,  Paul  was  resident  in 
Ephesus  for  over  two  years  after  leaving  Galatia,  and  this 
residence  was  in  accordance  with  his  previous  intention 
(Acts  XVIII  2i).  Those  who  place  the  composition  of 
Galatians  after  Romans  cannot  explain  Paul's  ignorance,  for 
it  is  as  certain  as  anything  in  that  far  away  time  can  be 
that  there  was  almost  daily  communication  between  Ephesus 
and  Pisidian  Antioch.^  The  commoner  view,  v/hich  places 
Galatians  as  early  as  possible  in  the  Ephesian  residence, 
reduces  the  difficulty ;  but  still  leaves  it  unexplained  why 
Paul's  news  was  so  sudden  and  so  completely  disastrous, 
why  he  had  no  preparation.  Yet  the  tone  of  these  opening 
words  is  inexplicable,  unless  the  news  had  come  like  a 
thunderclap  from  a  clear  sky. 

VII 
CAUSE  OF  THE  GALATIAN  MOVEMENT. 

In  order  to  illustrate  the  Galatian  situation,  let  us 
suppose  that  at  the  present  day  a  race,  which  had  been 
converted  to  Christianity  by  Protestant  missionaries,  was 

1  See  above,  p.  242. 

'^  Not  so  frequent  between  Ancyra  and  Ephesus;  but  even  in  that 
case  there  was  easy  communication,  see  Lightfoot,  p.  25. 


Cause  of  the  Galatian  Movement.  255 

soon  afterwards  visited  by  Roman  Catholic  missionaries, 
and  that  it  was  as  a  whole  strongly  affected  by  the  more 
imposing  ritual  of  that  form  of  Christianity  and  "  was 
quickly  removing "  to  it.  Would  any  one  be  content  to 
explain  the  situation  as  an  instance  and  a  proof  of  the 
"  fickleness  "  of  the  race,  which  thus  went  over?  One  who 
summed  up  the  situation  in  that  way  would  be  at  once 
rebuked  for  his  superficiality,  and  told  that  he  must  look 
for  some  more  deep-seated  reason  why  the  race  was  inclined 
to  prefer  the  more  sensuous  and  imposing  ritual  of  the 
second  form  to  the  stern  simplicity  of  their  original  Chris- 
tianity. 

So  in  the  Galatian  movement,  we  must  regard  it  as 
superficial,  if  any  one  explains  that  movement  as  caused 
by  the  "  fickleness  "  of  the  Galatians.  A  race  does  not 
change  its  religion  through  fickleness  :  it  changes,  because 
it  believes  the  new  form  to  be  better  or  truer  or  more 
advantageous  than  the  old.  We  must  try  to  understand 
the  reason  of  a  notable  religious  movement  in  Galatia,  and 
not  delude  ourselves  by  misleading  and  superficial  talk 
about  Galatian  fickleness. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  unscientific  nature  of  the  North 
Galatian  theory  that  it  lays  such  stress  on  the  "  fickleness  " 
of  the  Galatians  as  the  one  great  cause  of  their  religious 
nriovement. 

Now  what  cause  does  Paul  regard  as  lying  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Galatian  movement  ?  There  is  not  throughout  the 
whole  Epistle  a  word  or  a  sentence  to  suggest  that  he 
attributed  it  to  fickleness.  The  verse  which  we  are  con- 
sidering merely  states  a  fact — "  you  are  so  quickly  removing 
from  him  that  called  you  in  the  grace  of  Christ  unto  a 
different  Gospel  "-^-^nd  there  is  not  the  slightest  justification 


256  Cause  of  the  Galatian  Movement. 

for  reading  into  it  an  explanation  of  the  cause  of  removal. 
See  §  XLII,  pp.  193  ff,  323  f,  449. 

Moreover,  Paul  shows  throughout  the  Epistle  that  he 
saw  certain  causes  for  the  Galatian  movement,  and  that 
fickleness  was  not  one  of  them.  The  causes  will  become 
clear  as  we  go  over  the  ground.  Here  briefly  it  may  be 
said  that  they  partly  lay  in  misconceptions  into  which  the 
Galatians  had  fallen  through  false  impressions  and  false 
information  conveyed  to  them  by  others,  and  partly  in  the 
natural  tendency  to  recur  to  certain  religious  forms  to 
which  the  Galatians  had  been  accustomed  as  pagans,  or, 
as  St.  Paul  puts  it,  to  "  turn  back  to  the  weak  and  beggarly 
rudiments,"  IV  9. 

In  fact,  the  whole  Epistle  is  the  explanation  of  the 
causes  of  removal,  which  it  counteracts  and  undermines. 

VIII 
PAUL  AS  A  JUDAISTIC  PREACHER,  I.  6-10. 

We  have  remarked  in  §  V.  on  the  intense  feeling  shown 
in  this  paragraph.  Any  topic  that  is  touched  on  in  these 
verses  must  be  taken  as  a  point  of  transcendent  importance 
in  the  Galatian  difficulty.  Why,  then,  does  Paul  lay  such 
stress  on  the  supposition  that  he  ^  may  begin  to  preach  a 
diflferent  Gospel  ?  Can  anything  be  more  improbable  ? 
Why  does  he  waste  time  on  such  a  possibility  ?  What 
part  does  that  supposition  play  in  the  Galatian  difficulty  ? 

We  are  bound  to  the  view  that  the  supposition   here 

1  ^/xelf,  Paul  and  his  companion  in  preaching,.  As  Lightfoot  says, 
"  St.  Paul  seems  never  to  use  the  plural  when  speaking  of  himself 
alone  "  ;  yet  cp.  2  Cor.  VI  11. 


Paul  as  a  Judaistic  Preacher.  257 

introduced  in  this  emphatic  position  was  really  a  serious 
element  in  the  Galatian  trouble  :  i.e.,  the  Galatians  had 
acquired  the  opinion  that  Paul  had  somehow  been  con- 
veying a  different  message,  a  new  Gospel/  contrary  to  the 
Gospel  which  they  received  from  him  on  the  first  visit. 
This  opinion,  of  course,  had  been  instilled  into  them  by 
the  Judaistic  emissaries,  who  had  been  preaching  in  the 
Galatian  Churches  since  Paul's  second  visit.  In  V  1 1 
Paul  returns  to  the  same  topic.  "  If,"  he  says,  "  I  still 
preach  circumcision."  Here  there  is  an  unmistakable 
reference  to  an  assertion  made  by  the  Judaistic  preachers 
that  Paul  himself  had  been  preaching  the  Gospel  of  cir- 
cumcision ;  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  here  again  Paul  uses 
an  expression  of  the  most  vehement  indignation,  "  I  would 
that  they  which  unsettle  you  would  even  cut  themselves 
off.^  It  was  this  accusation  of  having  preached  an  anti- 
Pauline  Gospel  that  hurt  Paul  and  made  him  use  such 
strong  language  in  both  places  where  he  refers  to  it. 

But  was  not  the  accusation  too  absurd  ?  It  was,  how- 
ever, believed  by  the  Galatians,  for  otherwise  Paul  would 
have  suffered  it  to  "  pass  by  him  as  the  idle  wind  ".  Its 
danger  and  its  sting  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  Galatians  were 
misled  by  it.  Now  they  could  not  have  believed  it  merely 
on  the  bare,  uncorroborated  assertion  of  the  Judaisers 
There  must  have  been  a  certain  appearance  of  difference 
in  Paul's  teaching  on  his  second  visit,  which  gave  some 
support  to  the  statements  and  arguments  of  the  Judaistic 
teachers,  and  so  helped  to  mislead  the  Galatians. 

We  turn,  therefore,  to  the  history,  as  recorded  by  Luke, 
and  ask  whether  it  can  explain  how  the  Gospel  which  the 

^  So  Lightfoot,  and  (I  think)  almost  every  one. 
^  See  below,  §  LII. 

17 


258  Paul  as  a  Judaistic  Preacher. 

Galatians  received  on  the  former  visit  could  seem  to  them 
discordant  with  Paul's  subsequent  action  and  teaching  on 
his  second  visit.  Then  we  see  that  in  Acts  XVI,  Luke,  as 
always,  is  offeringus  the  means  of  understandingtheEpistles. 
On  the  second  journey  Paul  came  delivering  to  the  Galatians 
(Acts  XVI  4)  the  decree  of  the  Apostles  in  Jerusalem. 
That  might  fairly  seem  to  be  an  acknowledgment  that 
those  Apostles  were  the  higher  officials,  and  he  was  their 
messenger.  He  circumcised  Timothy.  That  might  readily 
be  understood  as  an  acknowledgment  that  the  higher  stages 
of  Christian  life  ^  were  open  only  through  obedience  to  the 
whole  Law  of  Moses  :  in  other  words,  that,  as  a  concession 
to  human  weakness,  the  Gentiles  were  admitted  by  the 
Apostolic  Decree  to  the  lower  standard  of  the  Church  on 
the  performance  of  part  of  the  Law,  but  that  the  perfecting 
of  their  position  as  Christians  could  be  attained  only  by 
compliance  with  the  whole  Law.  It  is  clear  from  Galatians 
III  3  that  this  distinction  between  a  lower  and  more 
perfect  stage  of  Christian  life  was  in  the  minds  of  the 
persons  to  whom  Paul  was  writing.  However  different 
Paul's  real  motive  was  in  respect  of  Timothy,  the  view  of 
his  action  suggested  by  the  Judaistic  teachers  was  a  very 
plausible  one,  and  evidently  had  been  accepted  by  the 
Galatians.  The  action,  in  truth,  was  one  easy  to  misunder- 
stand, and  not  easy  to  sympathise  with. 

Moreover,  the  Decree  itself  was  quite  open  to  this  con- 
struction. "  It  seemed  good  to  lay  upon  you  no  greater 
burden  than  these  necessary  things  " — this  expression  can 
plausibly  be  interpreted  to  imply  the  ellipsis,  "  but,  if  you 
voluntarily  undertake  a  heavier  burden,  we  shall  praise  you 

'  On  the  predisposition  of  the  Galatians  to  recognise  two  stages, 
lower  and  higher,  in  religious  knowledge,  see  §  XXVII. 


Paul  as  a  Judaistic  Preacher.  259 

for  your  zeal  in  doing  more  than  the  necessary  minimum," 
To  zealous  and  enthusiastic  devotees,  such  as  the  Asia 
Minor  races  were,^  this  interpretation  was  very  seductive. 
They  doubtless  had  heard  from  Paul  of  Peter's  speech 
(Acts  XV  10),  in  which  he  protested  against  putting  on 
them  a  yoke  too  heavy  ;  but,  under  the  stimulus  of  en- 
thusiasm, they  responded  to  the  Judaists  that  they  could 
and  would  support  that  yoke,  however  heavy. 

Moreover,  the  Galatians  had  been  used  to  a  religion  in 
which  such  ritualistic  acts  {ja  (noi^ela  rov  Koafiov,  IV  3) 
were  a  prominent  part ;  and  it  was  natural  that  they 
should  again  "  turn  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements ". 
The  result  of  the  whole  series  of  events  described  in  Acts 
would  naturally  be  that  the  Galatians  were  predisposed 
to  follow  the  Judaistic  emissaries,  and  to  think  that  Paul 
on  his  second  visit  was  preaching  another  Gospel,  and 
that  this  second  Gospel  was  the  true  Gospel,  as  being 
brought  from  the  real  Apostles,  the  pillars  of  the  Church. 

This  misinterpretation  of  his  conduct,  with  all  the  danger 
it  involved,  Paul  had  to  meet  at  the  outset.  It  was  funda- 
mental ;  and  until  it  was  put  out  of  the  way  he  could  make 
no  progress  in  setting  the  Galatians  right.  He  meets  it, 
not  by  mere  denial  and  disproof  (which  is  always  rather 
ineffective),  but  by  the  intense  and  vehement  outburst : 
"  If  Silas  or  I,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  preach  to  you  any 
Gospel  other  than  that  which  Barnabas  and  I  preached 
unto  you,  a  curse  on  him  ! " 

On  the  South  Galatian  theory  the  language  of  Paul  here 
is  quite  naturally  and  probably  explained.  Now  let  us 
compare  the  North  Galatian  view. 

^  See  pp.  36  ff,  196. 


26o  Paul  as  a  Judaistic  Preacher. 


It  is  quite  allowed  by  North  Galatian  theorists  that 
the  foundation  for  the  misrepresentation  of  Paul's  teaching 
alluded  to  in  I  6-IO  and  V  ii  lay  (as  we  also  assume)  in 
his  action  on  his  second  journey.^  Thus  they  are  face  to 
face  with  a  serious  difficulty.  Holding  that  the  Galatian 
Churches  were  converted  on  the  second  journey,  they  have 
to  show  how  Paul's  teaching  on  the  third  journey  (Acts 
XVIII  23),  could  appear  to  the  Galatians  more  Judaistic 
than  his  teaching  on  the  second  (Acts  XVIII  1-5).  They 
cannot  do  so,  and  they  do  not  attempt  it. 

It  does  not  seem  permissible  to  think  that  Paul's 
supposed  teaching  in  the  North  Galatian  cities  could  be 
materially  different  in  spirit  from  his  action  and  preaching 
in  South  Galatia  a  few  weeks  or  months  previously.  The 
words  of  Acts  XVI  5  must  be  taken  as  a  proof  that  through- 
out the  second  journey  Paul  charged  all  his  hearers  to 
observe  the  Apostles'  Decree ;  and,  considering  the  ease 
and  frequency  of  communication  between  the  various  Jewish 
settlements  in  Asia  Minor,  the  North  Galatian  Jews  must 
have  known  from  the  first  about  Paul's  action  to  Timothy : 
in  fact,  the  intention  was  that  they  should  know.  It 
would  therefore  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  it  was  only 
after  the  third  journey  that  their  Galatian  pagan  neighbours 
came  to  learn  what  Paul  had  been  doing  in  South  Galatia 
on  the  second  journey,  and  to  draw  their  conclusions  there- 
from. 

IX 

ANOTHER  GOSPEL,  I  6-7. 

According  to  the  Revised  Version  Paul  here  says  to  the 
Galatians,  "  I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  quickly  removing  from 
^  See,  t.g.y  Lightfoot's  note  on  Gal.  II  3. 


Another  Gospel.  261 


him  that  called  you  in  the  grace  of  Christ  unto  a  different 
gospel;  which  is  not  another  gospel:  only  there  are  some 
that  trouble  you  and  would  pervert  the  Gospel  of  Christ ". 

According  to  that  rendering  the  force  of  the  sentence 
lies  in  the  pointed  antithesis  between  two  Greek  words, 
€T€pov  and  aWo  :  the  Galatians  have  gone  over  to  a  gospel 
which  is  erepov  and  not  aWo  :  this  expression  is  taken  to 
mean  a  gospel  which  is  essentially  different,  and  is  not 
another  gospel,  i.e.,  is  not  a  second  example  of  the  genus 
gospel.  But  that  rendering,  though  widely  accepted,  rests 
on  a  mistaken  idea  of  the  meaning  of  the  two  Greek  words, 
when  contrasted  with  one  another. 

We  are  forced  here  to  enter  on  a  technical  point  of 
grammar,  vis:,  the  exact  signification  of  these  two  Greek 
words,  when  their  difference  is  brought  emphatically  before 
the  reader  by  close  juxtaposition.  Those  who  do  not  care 
to  read  the  grammatical  discussion  on  this  point  may  rest 
assured  that,  before  venturing  to  differ  from  so  great  a 
scholar  as  Lightfoot  on  such  a  subject,  the  writer  consulted 
several  excellent  scholars  ;  and  that,  since  the  view  here 
stated  as  to  the  force  of  the  two  Greek  words  was  first 
published,^  it  has  been  approved  by  several  distinguished 
authorities  as  undeniable. 

It  is  clear  that  Lightfoot's  usually  accurate  and  thorough 
sense  for  Greek  language  was  here  misled  by  a  theological 
theory :  he  thought  that  a  certain  meaning  was  necessary, 
and  he  proceeded  to  find  arguments  in  its  support,  de- 
claring that  erepo<i  involves  a  difference  of  kind  and  means 
"  unlike,"  "  opposite,"  while  aWo^  implies  "  one  besides," 
"  another  example  of  the  same  kind  ". 

'^Expositor,  Aug.,  1895,  p.  115  ff,  briefly  repeated  in  Expositor,  July, 
1898,  p.  20  ff. 


262  Another  Gospel. 


On  the  contrary,  the  truth  is  precisely  the  opposite. 
When  the  two  words  are  pointedly  contrasted  with  one 
another,  hepo'^  means  "  a  second,"  "  another  of  the  same 
kind,"  "  new  "  {e.g.,  "  a  new  king  succeeds  in  regular  course 
to  the  throne"),  while  aWo'i  implies  difference  of  kind. 
It  is  fully  acknowledged  by  every  one,  and  is  stated  clearly 
in  the  ordinary  standard  lexicons,  that  each  of  the  two 
words  is  susceptible  of  meaning  "  different,"  and  that  almost 
every  sense  of  the  one  in  Greek  literature  can  be  paralleled 
by  examples  in  which  the  other  is  used  in  the  same  way, 
so  that  cases  can  be  quoted  in  which  dWo^;  means  "  another 
example  of  a  class,"  or  in  which  erepof;  means  "  unlike," 
"  opposite  ", 

But  the  point  is  this  :  When  cTepo^;  and  aWo?  are  pointedly 
contrasted  with  one  another,  which  of  the  two  indicates 
the  greater  degree  of  difference  ?  what  is  the  original  and 
fundamental  distinction  between  them  ?  Our  contention 
is  that  in  such  cases,  erepot;  indicates  specific  difference, 
aXXo'i  generic  difference — erepo'i  expresses  the  slighter 
difference  between  two  examples  of  the  same  class,  aXXo'i 
the  broader  difference  between  two  distinct  classes.  Hence 
Professor  F.  Blass,  in  distinguishing  the  two  words  as 
employed  in  the  New  Testament,^  says  that  eT€po<i  is  in 
place  in  the  sense  of  a  second  division  {a'ne  zweite  Ah- 
theilung).  It  would  not  be  grammatically  wrong,  though 
it  would  be  harsh  and  awkward,  to  write  in  Greek  about  a 
pair  of  things  to  /i-ei/  erepov  aWo  eari,  to  8e  erepoi/  dXXo 
"  the  one  is  quite  different  from  the  other  ", 

Some   examples  may  be  quoted.      In  /had,  XIII   64, 
opveov  aXXo   means  "  a  bird  of  a  different    class  "  ;^  and 

1  Grammatik  des  N.  T.  Griechisch,  p.  175  f. 
^  oXXo^vXoi;  as  the  Scholiast  explains. 


Another  Gospel.  263 


eT€pov  would  be  hardly  conceivable  there,  as  the  natural 
interpretation  would  be  "  another  bird  of  the  same  class," 
"a  second  eagle".  So  in  //I'ac/,  XXI  22,  the  fish  of  other 
kinds  (J')(dve<;  aXkoC)  are  chased  by  the  dolphin  ;  but  t)(dve<i 
erepoi,  would  more  naturally  be  applied  to  dolphins  chasing 
one  another  in  play. 

Again,  eTepoirXov;  was  used  to  designate  an  insurance 
effected  on  a  vessel  for  the  outward,  but  not  for  the  return 
voyage,  but  dWoTrXov;  could  not  possibly  bear  that 
meaning. 

Mr.  R.  A.  Neil  quotes  Thucydides,  II  40,  2  f,  where 
ere/aot?  indicates  another  class  of  the  Athenians  {vis.,  the 
industrial  as  distinguished  from  the  military  or  the  states- 
man class),  while  a\Xoc<;  denotes  other  nations  as  distin- 
guished from  the  Athenians.  He  also  refers  to  Aristotle, 
Politics,  II  5,  p.  1263,  a.  8,  erepcov  ovtcov  tmv  yeapyovvrayv 
d\Xo<;  av  elrj  Tp67ro<i,  translating  "  if  the  farming  class  is  a 
distinct  sub-class  of  the  general  body  of  citizens,  then  the 
form  of  communism  would  be  quite  different  (from  what 
it  would  be  if  all  citizens  were  farmers)  ". 

Professor  I.  Bywater  points  out  that  Bonitz  recognises 
the  same  distinction  between  eTepo^  X6709  and  aXXo<;  X6yo<i 
in  Aristotle,  Index  Aristotel,  p.  290,  b.  19. 

Mr.  A,  Souter  quotes  Plato,  Protag.,  329D-330B,  where 
erepoi  indicates  the  members  of  a  class  when  all  are  homo- 
geneous, dXXo(;  the  members  of  a  class  when  each  differs 
in  kind  from  the  other.  Socrates  there  says — if  we  may 
put  the  meaning  in  brief — "  the  different  parts  of  the  whole 
class  called  gold  are  not  different  from  one  another  {ovSh 
8i.a(f)€peL  TO,  erepa  roiv  krepoov),  except  in  respect  of  size  ; 
but  the  different  parts  of  the  whole  class  called  virtue 
{i.e.,  the  special   virtues)  are  quite  different  in   character 


264  Another  Gospel. 


each  from  the  others  {eKaa-rov  avrayv  ecrriv  dWo,  rb  Se 
dWo  ^) . 

Even  the  derivation  of  the  two  words  shows  clearly 
what  is  the  fundamental  idea  in  each :  erepo^;,  e-repu-'i,  is 
a  comparative  degree  of  the  pronominal  stem  meaning 
"  one  "  or  "  same,"  while  dXko<;  is  connected  with  words  in 
many  languages  which  bear  the  sense  of  "  other "  or 
"different,"  e.^.,  else  in  English,  alius  in  Latin. 

In  later  Greek  the  tendency  of  these  two  adjectives  to 
pass  into  the  sense  of  each  other  became  steadily  stronger. 

In  view  of  this  grammatical  investigation  and  the  ex- 
amples quoted,  it  is  not  possible  within  the  limits  of  the 
Greek  language  to  admit  the  translation  as  advocated  by 
Lightfoot  and  many  others,  "  a  different  gospel,  which  is 
not  another,  a  second  Gospel,  i.e.,  which  is  not  a  Gospel 
at  all  ".2 

This  result  is  not  likely  to  be  disputed  by  any  scholar ; 
but  it  is  more  difficult  to  say  what  is  the  exact  meaning 
that  Paul  intended  to  convey.  There  are  two  alternatives  ;  ^ 
and  no  third  seems  possible. 

The  simplest,  and  perhaps  the  best,  is  that  which  the 
American  revisers  give  in  the  margin,  deleting  the  punctua- 
tion after  dXKo  :  "  a  different  gospel  which  is  nothing  else 
save  that  there  are  some  that  .  .  .  would  pervert  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,"  in  other  words  "  another  Gospel  which  is  merely 
a  perversion  of  the  Gospel ".     This  is  quite  good  Greek.* 

^  Equivalent  to  to  fiev  aXXo,  to  Se  aXXo :  Stallbaum  quotes  instances 
of  similar  omission  of  to  fiiv. 

^  erepov  evayye^iov  6  ovk  eaTiv  aWo  •   el  fir]  rives  kt\. 

3  Both  are  clearly  stated  in  the  articles  in  Expositor,  pp.  118  and  22, 
quoted  above,  p.  261. 

*  The  construction  ovk  eanv  aWo  el  firj  rives  ktX  is  quite  correct, 
and  needs  no  quotation  of  examples  to  defend  it, 


Another  Gospel.  265 


It  also  gives  a  perfectly  apposite  and  perfectly  Pauline 
sense,  and  probably  most  scholars  will  prefer  it.^  Pro- 
fessor Blass,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer,  strongly  advocates  it. 

Another  sense — less  probable  perhaps,  but  more  vigorous 
and  more  characteristic  of  Paul's  habit  of  compressing  his 
meaning  into  the  fewest  words  and  sometimes  straining  the 
force  of  words — woujd  be  to  accept  the  exact  punctuation 
given  by  Lightfoot  and  the  revisers.  Then  we  should 
render,  "  I  marvel  that  you  are  so  quickly  going  over  to 
another  gospel,  which  is  not  a  different  gospel  (from  mine), 
except  in  so  far  as  certain  persons  pervert  the  Gospel  of 
Christ ".  This  is  equivalent  to  "  I  marvel  that  you  are  so 
quickly  going  over  from  the  gospel  as  announced  by  me 
to  another  gospel  (as  announced  by  the  older  Apostles), 
not  that  it  is  really  different  from  mine  (for  the  older 
Apostles  agree  with  me),  except  in  so  far  as  it  is  distorted 
by  the  emissaries  who  have  been  and  still  are  troubling  you  ". 

That  exactly  expresses  Paul's  position.  The  gospel  as 
preached  by  him  was  a  erepov  evayyeXcov  from  the  gospel  as 
preached  by  the  older  Apostles,  but  there  was  no  real 
difference  between  them  ;  they  were  only  two  practically 
homogeneous  members  of  the  same  class.  Peter  and 
James  agreed  with  him  on  every  important  point.  But 
there  were  Jews  who  came  as  emissaries  from  Jerusalem, 
and  yet  preached  a  totally  different  gospel ;  these  are  simply 
distorters  and  perverters  of  the  Gospel. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  this  second  alternative, 
which  are  likely  to  prevent  most  scholars  from  accepting 
it,  are  these  : — 

First,  it  may  be  argued  that  by  the  time  when  Paul  wrote, 

^  The  last  seven  words  are  taken  verbatim  from  Expositor,  Aug., 
18^6,  p.  118. 


266  Another  Gospel. 


the  original  distinction  between  the  two  Greek  words  had 
been  lost  to  such  a  degree  that  a  pointed  contrast  between 
them  could  not  have  suggested  itself  to  his  mind  ;  that 
would  lead  to  a  much  more  detailed  study  of  the  words 
than  has  ever  been  made,  a  study  which  would  be  out  of 
place  here. 

Secondly,  in  2  Cor.  XI  4,  Paul  speaks  of  erepov  evay^eXiov, 
aWov  ' Ir](rovv,  aWo  Trvevfia,  using  the  two  adjectives  as 
practically  equivalent. 


X 

"  SEEKING  TO  PLEASE  MEN,"  I  10. 

In  the  Expositor,  July,  1897,  p.  66,  Professor  W.  Locke 
pointed  out  in  a  most  illuminative  paper  that,  "  in  order 
to  comprehend  many  passages  in  Paul's  letters,  we  must 
understand  that  certain  phrases  represent  the  substance,  if 
not  the  actual  words,  of  the  taunts  levielled  in  speech 
against  him  by  his  Jewish-Christian  opponents  "  ;  and,  to 
make  this  clear,  he  prints  those  phrases  between  inverted 
commas. 

The  phrases,  "  persuade  men,"  and  "  seek  to  please  men  " 
in  Galatians  I  10  are  evidently  of  this  nature.  Paul  was 
accused  by  the  Judaising  emissaries  of  trimming  his  words 
and  ideas  to  suit  the  people  among  whom  he  was  :  it  was 
said  that  in  Jerusalem  he  Judaised,  as  when  he  concurred 
in  the  Decree :  in  Galatia  among  the  Gentiles  he  made  the 
Jews  of  no  account:  even  when  he  brought  the  Decree 
at  the  order  of  the  greater  Apostles,  he  minimised  and 
explained  it  away  to  suit  the  Galatians,  but  yet,  to  please 
the  Jews,  he  circumcised  Timothy.     It  was  easy  to  distort 


Tone  of  Address  to  the  Galatians.  267 

Paul's  method  of  adapting  himself  to  his  audience  and 
"  becoming  all  things  to  all  men,"  so  as  to  make  this 
accusation  very  dangerous  and  plausible. 

He  recurs  later  to  the  taunts  mentioned  here ;  and  in 
VI  17  he  dismisses  them  with  the  words,  "  from  hence- 
forth let  no  man  trouble  me  ".  In  both  places  his  answer 
is  the  same  :  he  appeals  to  the  sufferings  which  he  has 
endured  because  of  his  teaching.  If  he  had  sought  to 
please  men,  he  would  not  be  the  slave  of  Christ :  he  bears 
in  his  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  for  the  marks  left 
in  his  body  by  the  stones  at  Lystra  (and  probably  by  the 
lictors'  rods  at  Antioch  and  Lystra,  St.  Paul,  pp.  107,  304), 
brand  him  as  the  slave  of  Jesus.^  He  leaves  the  Galatians 
to  judge  from  his  life  whether  he  has  aimed  at  pleasing 
men  or  at  serving  God. 

XI 

TONE  OF  ADDRESS  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 

This  opening  paragraph,  I  6-10,  does  not  merely  show 
the  intense  feeling  that  raged  in  Paul's  mind  :  it  is  also  a 
revelation  of  Galatian  nature.  His  power  of  vividly  pre- 
senting the  situation  in  all  its  reality  before  his  own  mind 
made  him,  in  the  moment  of  writing,  as  fully  conscious  of 
his  correspondents'  nature  and  mind  as  he  was  of  himself. 
Things  presented  themselves  to  him,  as  he  wrote,  in  the 
form  which  would  most  impress  his  Galatian  readers.  It 
was  that  intense  sympathetic  comprehension  of  the  nature 
of  others  that  made  him  such  a  power  among  men.  Hence, 
in  this  Epistle,  you  see  the  whole  nature  of  the  Galatian 

^  On  the  marking  of  slaves  in  Asia  Minor,  see  p.  84, 


268  Tone  of  Address  to  the  Galatians. 

converts  spread  open  before  you ;  and  it  is  not  the  bold, 
proud,  self-assertive  nature  of  a  northern  race,  like  the 
Gauls,  that  is  here  revealed.  Let  any  one  who  has  some 
knowledge  of  the  difference  between  Oriental  nature 
and  the  nature  of  the  "  barbarians "  from  the  north- 
western lands,  or  who  has  studied  the  ancient  picture 
of  those  Gauls  who  swept  in  their  small  bands  over  Asia, 
trampling  in  the  dust  the  multitudinous  armies  of  great 
kings  and  populous  cities,  those  fierce,  haughty,  self- 
respecting  barbarians,  keenly  sensitive  to  insult,  careless 
of  danger  or  wounds,  settled  as  an  aristocratic  and  con- 
quering caste  among  a  far  more  numerous  race  of  subject 
Phrygians — let  any  such  person  judge  for  himself  whether 
this  paragraph,  or  the  fresh  start.  III  i  ff,  is  the  way  to 
address  such  an  audience  :  the  tone  of  authority,  of  speak- 
ing from  a  higher  platform,  is  exactly  what  a  man  of  tact 
would  carefully  avoid.  But  many  modern  writers  seem 
never  to  have  considered  what  was  the  position  of  the 
Gauls  in  Galatia.  They  write  as  if  Paul  were  addressing 
simple-minded,  peaceful  tribes  of  gentle  South  Sea  islan- 
ders, whom  he  treats  as  his  children.  The  Gauls  were  an 
aristocracy  settled  for  nearly  three  centuries  as  nobles 
among  plebeians,  like  the  Normans  among  the  Saxons  in 
England. 

But  this  very  tone,  brief  and  authoritative,  is  the  effec- 
tive method  of  addressing  the  native  races  of  Asia  Minor. 
It  is  so  now,  and  it  was  the  same  in  ancient  time,  when  the 
very  word  "  Phrygian  "  was  equivalent  to  "  slave  ".  Every 
traveller  who  mixes  with  the  people  of  Anatolia  learns  how 
necessary  is  the  "  touch  of  authority  "'  mixed  with  frank- 
ness and  courtesy.  On  this  point  I  can  only  appeal  to 
those  who  know  ;  and  add   the  statement  that  the  best 


The  Gospel  which  ye  received.  269 

possible  illustration  of  the  tone  of  this  whole  Epistle  is  the 
experience  of  the  traveller.^ 

This  difference  of  tone  from  all  other  Epistles  has,  of 
course,  been  noticed  by  every  one,  and  is  usually  explained 
as  due  to  anger.  But  Paul,  even  if  angry,  was  not  one 
of  those  persons  who  lose  their  temper  and  say  injudicious 
things  :  while  deeply  moved,  he  only  became  more  resolute 
and  alert  and  watchful  :  the  tone  of  this  letter  is  mis- 
understood by  those  who  fail  to  read  in  it  the  character  of 
the  persons  to  whom  it  is  addressed.     See  §  XXII. 


XII 
THE  GOSPEL  WHICH  YE  RECEIVED. 

The  whole  paragraph  becomes  most  clear  if  we  under- 
stand that  "  the  Gospel  which  ye  received  "  refers  definitely 
to  the  occasion  and  manner  in  which  the  good  news  was 
first  received  by  the  Church  or  the  Individual.  Similarly 
the  announcement  of  the  word  (d77e\ta  toO  \q<^ov)  men- 
tioned in  Acts  XV  16,  took  place  on  the  first  journey  :  on 
that  journey  the  apostles  brought  the  good  news  to  Anti- 
och  and  Lystra  and  Derbe  (Acts  XIII  32  ;  XIV  7,  15,  21). 
But  on  the  second  and  third  journeys  "strengthening"  is 
the  term  employed  (XVI  ;  compare  XV  41,  XVIII  23), 
In  Acts  XV  35  Bt,8daKovT€'i  Kal  €vayy€\i^6fji,€i>oi  describes 
the  two  processes  of  teaching  the  converts  and  carrying 
the  good  news  to  those  who  had  not  yet  heard  it. 

In  view  of  this  difference  it  is  highly  probable  that  Paul's 
second  visit  to  Galatia  was  a  brief  one,  in  which  he  con- 

^  See  above,  pp.  33,  195,  and  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  27  ff. 


270  The  Gospel  which  ye  received. 

fined  his  attention  to  strengthening  and  instructing  the 
converts  without  seeking  to  carry  on  a  further  process  of 
evangelisation.  That  has  been  assumed  on  the  authority 
of  Acts  in  the  reckoning  of  time  in  my  Church  in  the 
Roman  Empire,  p.  85  ;  and  it  seems  to  gather  strength 
from  the  language  of  Galatians.  EvayyekiaafxeOa  and 
TrapeXd^ere  refer  to  the  single  occasion  when  the  Churches 
were  formed,  the  first  journey  ;  and  the  instruction  given 
on  the  second  journey  is  distinguished  from  it.  Paul  does 
not  trouble  himself  to  prove  that  the  second  message  was 
consistent  with  the  first.  He  merely  says,  "  if  the  second 
message  was  different,  a  curse  be  upon  me  :  you  must 
cleave  to  the  first,  which  came  direct  from  God  ". 

The  point,  then,  which  Paul  sets  before  himself  is  not  to 
show  that  he  has  always  been  consistent  in  his  message, 
but  to  show  that  the  original  message  which  he  brought 
to  the  Galatians  came  direct  from  God  to  him.  If  he 
makes  them  feel  that,  then  the  other  accusation  of  later 
inconsistency  on  his  part  will  disappear  of  itself. 

This  method  is  obviously  far  the  most  telling.  Even  if 
Paul,  by  a  lengthened  proof  (always  difficult  to  grasp  for 
those  who  are  not  very  eager  to  grasp  it),  had  proved 
that  he  had  really  been  consistent,  that  did  not  show  that 
he  was  right  or  his  message  divine.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  he  showed  that  his  first  message  was  divine,  then  the 
Galatians  would  from  their  own  mind  and  conscience 
realise  what  was  the  inner  nature  and  meaning  of  his 
conduct  on  the  second  journey. 

The  line  of  proof  is,  first,  an  autobiographical  record  of 
the  facts  bearing  upon  his  original  Gospel  to  the  Galatians, 
and  thereafter  an  appeal  to  their  own  knowledge  that 
through   this   first   Gospel  they  had   received  the   Spirit. 


Dates  of  the  Autobiography.  271 

That  was  the  ultimate  test  of  divine  origin.  Nothing 
could  give  them  the  Spirit  and  the  superhuman  power 
of  the  Spirit  except  a  divine  Gospel. 

XIII 
DATES  OF  THE  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

Paul  in  this  retrospect  mentions  a  number  of  events  in 
his  past  life.  The  question  has  been  keenly  debated 
whether  the  dates  which  he  prefixes  to  some  of  the  events 
are  intended  to  mark  the  interval  between  each  and  the 
preceding  event,  or  the  period  that  separates  each  from 
his  conversion.  Let  us  put  down  the  facts  clearly.  The 
following  events  are  mentioned  : — 

1.  The  conversion  and  call  to  the  Gentiles  (I  15,  16). 
This  is  the  starting-point,  and  is  therefore  introduced  by 
ore. 

2.  eudea)<i,  the  retiring  to  Arabia  ;  'koI  irdXiv  the  return 
to  Damascus  (I  17).  Probably  it  would  be  right  to  num- 
ber these  as  2  and  3  ;  but  I  refrain  from  doing  so,  lest  I 
seem  to  some  to  press  the  reasoning  too  hard.  It  would 
strengthen  my  argument  to  class  them  as  two  distinct 
facts. 

3.  cTrena  fiera  rpia  err),  the  first  visit  to  Jerusalem,  and 
the  stay  of  fifteen  days  there  (I  18,  19). 

4.  eTretra,  the  retiring  to  Syria  and  Cilicia,  and  continu- 
ance there  (I  21-24) 

5.  eTretra  hia  SeKarecra-dpoyv  ircov,  the  second  visit  to 
Jerusalem  (II  i-io).^ 

1  The  form  of  II  ii  ff  implies  that  it  is  not  a  sixth  item  in  this 
retrospect  There  is  no  Ztzeira  or  other  similar  word  to  introduce  it. 
It  is  marked  by  a  new  ore  as  a  fresh  start,  parallel  to  I  15. 


272  Dates  of  the  Autobiography. 

The  form  of  this  list  with  the  repetition  of  cTreiTa  seems, 
so  far  as  I  may  judge,  to  mark  it  as  a  compact  enumera- 
tion, in  which  the  reader  is  intended  to  hold  the  whole 
together  in  his  mind,  and  to  think  of  each  as  a  fact  in  a 
continuing  biographical  series.  The  thought  is,  as  it  were, 
"  In  the  Divine  reckoning  my  life  begins  from  the  con- 
version and  call  to  the  Gentiles.  In  the  gradual  working 
out  of  that  call  there  are  the  following  stages ;  but  in  think- 
ing of  my  life,  you  must  hold  always  in  mind  the  epoch- 
making  fact  of  the  conversion  ;  if  you  would  understand 
my  life,  you  must  refer  every  act  in  it  to  that  primary  reve- 
lation of  the  will  of  God  in  me  ".  Hence  all  the  numbers 
must  be  interpreted  with  reference  to  the  great  epoch. 
To  consider  that  in  this  biographical  enumeration  each  new 
item,  as  it  were,  blots  out  the  previous  one,  so  that  the 
numbers  are  to  be  reckoned  as  intervals  that  elapsed  from 
one  item  to  the  following,  is  to  lose  the  dominance  of  the 
central  and  epoch-making  event,  which  is  never  absent 
frorti  Paul's  mind. 

And  is  it  not  true  even  now  ?  On  our  conception  of  that 
one  event  depends  our  whole  view  of  Paul's  life.  So  far 
as  we  understand  his  conversion,  do  we  understand  the 
man.  My  argument  in  this  section  is  the  same  thought 
which  I  would  apply  to  Paul's  whole  life  ;  and,  if  I  be 
granted  time  and  opportunity,  I  would  write  his  life  with 
that  thought  always  dominant :  "  You  understand  nothing 
in  Paul  unless  you  take  it  in  its  relation  to  his  conversion  ". 
He  that  fails  to  do  that  in  any  case  fails  entirely :  there  is 
but  one  way,  and  he  that  misses  it  goes  wrong  inevitably 
in  his  conception  of  Paul's  work. 

It  was  a  true  instinct  that  led  the  Church  to  take  the 
conversion  as  the  day  of  St.  Paul.     For  other  saints  and 


Dates  of  the  Autobiography .  273 

martyrs  their  day  of  celebration  was  their  dies  natatis,  the 
day  on  which  they  entered  on  their  real  life,  their  day  of 
martyrdom.  But  the  dies  natatis  of  St.  Paul,  the  day  on 
which  his  true  life  began,  was  the  day  of  his  conversion. 

We  follow  that  instinct  here,  and  reckon  all  the  events 
in  this  autobiography  by  reference  to  that  thought,  always 
dominant  in  his  mind,  and  which  ought  always  to  be  domi- 
nant in  the  reader's  mind — his  conversion. 

Further,  we  observe  that  those  who  take  the  other  view 
of  the  meaning  of  these  numbers  always  argue  as  if  the  list 
consisted  of  three  events  :  (i).  conversion,  (2)  first  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  (3)  second  visit.  But  Paul,  by  the  form  of  the 
list,  marks  it  as  containing  either  five  or  six  separate  items, 
each  introduced  in  a  similar  way  ;  and  it  does  violence  to 
the  form  of  expression  which  here  rose  naturally  in  Paul's 
mind,  if  it  be  declared  that  the  other  items  are  to  be 
dropped  entirely  out  of  sight,  and  we  are  to  think  only  of 
the  three. 

If  he  had  intended  the  two  estimates  of  time  as  marking 
the  intervals  between  the  items  of  his  list,  he  would  have 
indicated  in  his  expression  that  the  list  contained  only 
three  items. 

Again,  Paul  never  neglected  the  most  vigorous  and  in- 
cisive way  of  putting  his  thought :  he  neglects  rhetorical 
verbosity,  but  he  never  neglects,  he  could  not  neglect,  the 
effect  that  is  given  by  putting  facts  in  their  most  striking 
form.  Here  the  numbers  derive  their  effect  on  his  readers' 
minds  from  their  greatness  ;  and,  if  he  had  been  able  to 
use  the  number  17,  he  would  inevitably  (according  to 
my  conception  of  his  nature)  have  taken  the  expression 
which  enabled  him  to  use  the  larger  number. 

In   using   this   passage   for  chronological  reckoning,   it 

18 


274  Dates  of  the  Autobiography. 


must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Paul's  words,  ^t.^Ta  rpia  erij, 
etc.,  do  not  correspond  to  our  "three  years  after".  For 
example,  counting  from  A.D.  31,  fiera  rpia  ctt)  would  be 
A.D.  33,  "the  third  year  after"  ;  but  "three  years  after,"  in 
our  expression,  would  imply  A.D.  34. 

This  rule  of  interpretation  is  regular  in  ancient  times  ; 
the  day  or  year  which  forms  the  starting  point  is  reckoned 
in  the  sum.  But  in  the  modern  system  the  starting  point 
is  not  so  reckoned.  Thus  we  count  that  three  days  after 
Sunday  means  Wednesday  ;  but  the  ancients  reckoned  that 
three  days  after  Sunday  implied  Tuesday.  Much  unneces- 
sary difficulty,  and  not  a  few  unnecessary  charges  of  in- 
accuracy against  ancient  writers,  have  resulted  from  neglect 
of  this  rule.  For  example,  the  lapse  of  time  in  the 
journey  from  Philippi  to  Jerusalem  (Acts  XX  and  XXI) 
has  been  generally  reckoned  wrongly ;  and  it  has  been 
gravely  discussed  whether  or  not  Luke  intends  to  bring 
out  that  Paul  reached  Jerusalem  in  time  for  the  feast  of 
Pentecost,  which  was  his  object.  This  difficulty  is  created 
simply  by  modern  inattention  to  the  old  way  of  reckoning. 

Similarly,  as  to  Paul's  residence  in  Ephesus :  Luke  gives 
the  time  as  two  full  years  and  three  months  (Acts  XIX  8, 10), 
while  Paul  speaks  of  it  as  three  years  (Acts  XX  31).  This 
had  been  stigmatised  as  a  discrepancy — with  the  com- 
placent self-satisfaction  of  the  hasty  critic,  far  removed 
above  mere  vulgar  accuracy ;  but  two  years  and  a  few 
months  was  regularly  spoken  of  as  three  years  by  the 
ancients,  just  as  we  call  the  nineteenth  century  anything 
above  eighteen  hundred. 

But  as  the  best  example  of  ancient  usage  in  regard  to 
reckoning  of  time  let  us  take  the  pathetic  story — a  stock 
subject  with  the  Roman  moralists — of  the  death  of  the  two 


The  Province  of  Syria  and  Cilicia.        275 

sons  of  Aemilius  Paullus  almost  contemporaneously  with 
his  gorgeous  triumph  after  the  conquest  of  Macedonia. 

Cicero  ^  says  that  Paullus  lost  two  sons  in  seven  days. 
Livy^  says  that  the  elder  son  died  five  days  before  the 
triumph,  and  the  younger  three  days  after.  According  to 
our  method  of  counting  there  is  a  contradiction  between 
these  statements.  But  in  a  matter  which  was  so  striking 
and  so  famous,  we  should  expect  that  the  numbers  would 
be  accurately  preserved.  Cicero's  words  would  be  as 
effective  if  he  had  said  "  in  eight  days,"  and  the  Roman 
had  no  conception  of  a  seven  days'  week,  which  might  lead 
him  to  say  roughly  seven  days  in  preference  to  the  exact 
number,  eight.  The  reason  for  specifying  an  exact  number 
in  such  a  case  is  that  the  writer  knew  it  to  be  right ;  yet 
here,  two  good  authorities  contradict  each  other. 

But  on  the  Roman  method  of  counting  all  is  quite  simple, 
and  the  two  accounts  agree  exactly.  Say  that  the  elder 
son  died  on  Wednesday;  then  the  fifth  day  after,  to  a 
Roman,  was  Sunday.  On  Sunday  the  triumph  was  cele- 
brated. The  third  day  after  Sunday  was  Tuesday,  and 
the  younger  son  died  on  this  the  seventh  day  after"  his 
brother's  death. 

XIV 
THE  PROVINCE  OF  SYRIA  AND  CILICIA,  I  21. 

The  expression  rendered  in  the  Revised  Version,  "the 
Regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,"  has  been  treated  by  some 
scholars  as  describing  two  countries  ;  and  they  seek  to  find 
a  discrepancy  between  Galatians  1  21  and  Acts  IX  30,  as 
if  in  the  former  it  were  asserted  that  Paul  visited  Syria 

1  Cicero,  Ad.  Fam.,  IV  6,1.  *  Ljvy,  XLV  40. 


276         The  Province  of  Syria  and  Cilicia. 

first  and  afterwards  Cilicia,  whereas  in  the  Acts  it  is  stated 
that  he  went  direct  to  Tarsus.  Then  other  commentators 
seek  to  avoid  this  inference,  some  by  pointing  out  that  on 
the  way  to  CiHcia  he  would  remain  at  Syrian  ports  long 
enough  to  justify  him  in  saying  that  he  came  to  Syria  and 
then  to  Cilicia,  while  others  argue  that  his  residence  at 
Antioch  during  the  latter  part  of  the  period  justifies  him 
in  speaking  of  both  Syria  and  Cilicia,  without  implying 
that  the  Syrian  visit  was  before  the  Cilician. 

All  these  views  start  from  a  misconception  of  Paul's 
language  and  thought.  He  always  thinks  and  speaks  with 
his  eye  on  the  Roman  divisions  of  the  Empire,  i.e.,  the 
Provinces,  in  accordance  both  with  his  station  as  a  Roman 
citizen  and  with  his  invariable  and  oft-announced  principle 
of  accepting  and  obeying  the  existing  government.  Thus 
he  speaks  of  Achaia,  Asia,  Macedonia,  Galatia,  lUyricum, 
using  in  each  case  the  Roman  names  of  Provinces,  not  the 
Greek  names  of  countries.  Achaia,  to  the  Greeks,  denoted 
a  much  smaller  territory  than  to  the  Romans,  and  it  was 
only  in  rare  cases  that  the  Greeks  used  either  Achaia  or 
Galatia  in  the  wide  Roman  sense. 

But  the  most  striking  example  of  Paul's  habit  of  using 
Roman  names  is  tov  ' IWvpiKov  in  Romans  XV  19.  The 
Greeks  used  the  name  'IX\vp[<;  to  correspond  to  the  Roman 
Illyricum}  and  employed  'IX\vpiK6<;  only  as  an  adjective. 
None  but  a  person  who  was  absolutely  Roman  in  his  point 
of  view  could  have  employed  the  term  ' IWvpiKov,  and  he 
could  mean  by  it  nothing  but  "  Provincia  Illyricum  ".^ 

^  So,  e.g.^  Ptolemy,  IV  12,  and  Strabo,  often. 

^  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  3  Timothy  IV  10,  Paul  speaks  of  this 
same  Province  as  Dalmatia.  The  difference  of  name  cannot  be  ap- 
pealed to  as  pointing  to  different  authorship  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles 


The  Province  of  Syria  and  Cilicia.         ijy 

The  only  writers  in  Greek  that  use  this  Graeco-Latin  term 
TO  'iWvpLKov  in  place  of  the  Greek  'I\\vpi<i  are  the  Roman 
historian  Dion  Cassius  (in  two  passages)  and  the  Roman 
citizen  and  conqueror  Paul,  who  was  looking  forward  to 
the  Christianisation  of  the  Roman  Empire,  who  counted 
his  progress  by  Provinces,  and  planted  his  steps  in  their 
capitals.^ 

In  accordance  with  his  usual  practice,  Paul  here  thinks 
and  speaks  of  the  Roman  Province,  which  consisted  of  two 
great  divisions,  Syria  and  Cilicia ;  and  he  designates  it 
by  the  double  name,  like  Provincia  Bithynia  et  Pontus. 
We  must  accordingly  read  t'^?  1,vpla<i  koI  KL\.LKia<i,  with 
the  common  article  embracing  the  two  parts  of  one 
province,  according  to  the  original  text  of  ^.  Although 
I  do  not  recollect  any  example  of  the  expression  "  Prov. 
Syria  et  Cicilia"  yet  the  analogy  of  Bithynia-Pontus  is  a 
sufficient  defence.  It  was  not  possible  here  to  use  the 
simple  name  of  the  Province  Syria,  for  if  he  said  that  he 
had  gone  into  the  districts  of  Syria,  his  meaning  would  have 
been  mistaken.     In  those  composite  Roman  Provinces  it 

and  of  the  Romans ;  it  is  merely  a  sign  of  the  change  which  was 
happening  during  Paul's  lifetime.  The  name  Illyricum  (universal 
in  early  Latin  writers)  gradually  gave  place  to  Dalmatia  (which 
previously  was  only  the  southern  part  of  the  Province  as  constituted 
by  Augustus  in  a.d.  id,  the  northern  division  being  Liburnia) ;  and 
the  common  name  from  70  onwards  was  Dalmatia  (as  Mommsen 
says,  "  wie  .sie  seit  der  Zeit  der  Flavier  gewuhnlich  heisst,"  Rum.  Gesch., 
V,  c.  VI,  p.  184).  Suetonius,  guided  doubtless  by  his  authorities,  calls 
the  Province  Illyricum  under  the  earlier  Emperors,  but  varies  between 
Dalmatia  and  Illyricum  under  Claudius  and  Otho.  Similarly,  in  the 
time  of  Nero,  Paul  varies,  following  the  common  usage,  which  was 
evidently  swinging  definitely  over  from  the  old  to  the  new  name 
between  57  and  67. 
1  See  also  §  XXV. 


278         The  Province  of  Syria  and  Cilicia. 

was  sometimes  necessary  for  the  sake  of  clearness  to 
designate  them  by  enumerating  the  parts.  For  example, 
the  official  name  for  the  great  provincial  festival  at  Syrian 
Antioch  described  it  as  "  common  to  Syria  Cilicia  Phoenice," 
where  Phoenice,  which  is  generally  reckoned  part  of  Syria, 
is  distinguished  from  it.^  Similarly,  the  governors  of  the 
united  Provinces  Galatia  and  Cappadocia,  desiring  on 
their  milestones  to  express  clearly  the  vast  extent  of  their 
operations,  recorded^  that  they  had  made  the  roads  of 
Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  Pisidia,  Paphlagonia,  Lycaonia, 
and  Armenia  Minor. 

The  meaning  of  I  21,  then,  is  simply  that  Paul  spent 
the  following  period  of  his  life  in  various  parts  of  the 
Province  Syria-Cilicia  ;  and  it  confirms  the  principle  of 
interpretation  laid  down  by  Zahn  that  "  Paul  never  desig- 
nates any  part  of  the  Roman  Empire  by  any  other  name 
than  that  of  the  Province  to  which  it  belonged  ;  and  he 
never  uses  any  of  the  old  names  of  countries,  except  in  so 
far  as  these  had  become  names  of  Provinces  "  {Einleitung 
in  das  N.  T.,  p.  124). 

XV 
THE  KLIMATA  OF  SYRIA  AND  CILICIA. 

Further,  the  phrase  ra  KXi^iara  Trj<i  ^vpia^  Kal  Ki\,tKLa<i 
should  not  be  understood  as  "  the  KXifxa  or  region  of  Syria 
and  the  KXi^ia  of  Cilicia  ".     KXlfia  was  not  used  to  denote 

^  The  provincial  cultus  with  its  dyav  was  kolvos  ^vpias  KiXiKias 
<^oLvfiKT]s  (Henzen,  Bull.  deW  Inst.,  iSjy,  p.  109  ;  Mommsen,  Res  Gestae 
D.  Aug.,  p.  173). 

2  C.I.L.,  III  312,  318 :  even  this  long  list  is  shortened,  see  Hastings' 
Diet.  Bib.,  II,  p.  87,  also  next  note. 


The  Klimafa  of  Syria  and  Cilicia.         279 

such  a  great  district  as  Syria  or  Cilicia;  and  it  is  unfortunate 
that  both  the  Revised  and  Authorised  Versions  translate 
it  by  the  same  term  that  they  used  for  %ft)pa  in  Acts  XIV 
6,  XVI  6,  XVIII  23.  Xdipa  is  correctly  used  to  indicate 
the  great  geographical  divisions  of  a  province  (as  in  those 
cases)  ;  and  we  might  speak  of  the  %66pa  of  Cilicia  and  the 
X'^P^^  of  Syria,  but  not  of  the  KXifxa  ^  of  Cilicia.  The  regu- 
lar usage  would  be  ra  KXifiara  ^vpia^ :  compare,  e.g.,  KKifiara 
M^ata?  in  2  Cor.  XI  10 :  four  small  districts  in  the 
west  of  Cilicia  Tracheia  were  called  ra  KXl^ara:^  Sinope 
and  Amisos  are  described  as  7rpo<?  roU  KXifiaa-i  Keifievai 
(Justinian,  Novella  28). 

It  is  difficult  to  define  the  precise  geographical  sense 
of  the  word  /cXt/xa  ;  and,  as  a  rule,  scholars  scorn  to  think 
about  the  exact  distinction  between  technical  terms  of 
geography.  It  has  been  suggested  in  the  writer's  Historical 
Geography  of  Asia  Minor,  p.  417,  that  the  term  should  be 
taken  in  the  sense  of  "  lands  sloping  back  from  the  sea  " 
when  applied  to  Sinope,  Amisos,  and  the  four  Cilician 
districts.  In  other  places,  however,  it  seems  to  have  a 
vaguer  sense,  merely  as  "  territory,"  though  possibly  there 
may  be  in  some  of  these  cases  the  idea  of  "  frontier^terri- 
tories  ".^  In  the  Acta  Theodori  Syceotae'^  the  Kkifia  TPi<i 
Mv7)^ivT}<i  evidently  denotes  the  territory  belonging  to  the 
city  of  Mnezos,  which  proves  that  K\ifia  denoted  a  com- 

1  In  other  words,  Roman  Cilicia  in  its  entirety  was  a  territory  or 
region  (x^pn)  of  the  province  Syria-Cilicia,  just  as  Galatic  Phrygia, 
Galatic  Lycaonia,  etc.,  were  territories  or  regions  composing  the 
Province  Galatia.     In  Cilicia  there  were  many  klimata. 

^  Histor.  Geogr.,  p.  417,  and  table  facing  p.  362. 

^  Dr.  Gilford  sends  the  illustrative  quotation  rav  fiev  npos  ^oivIktjv 

KfK\lHfV(i>V  fJi€pU}V    KoX   TU)V  €771   dakaTTT]   TOJVOiV,    DlodorUS,    I    l"]. 

*  Greek  text  in  Joannes  Theophili,  Mvr]ii(la  ' AyioXoyiKo,  p.  394. 


28o         The  Klimata  of  Syria  and  Cilicia. 

paratively  small  geographical  division  :  in  that  passage 
the  sense  of  "  frontier  district "  is  quite  conceivable,  as  a 
village  on  the  upper  Siberis  near  the  Paphlagonian  frontier 
is  there  said  to  be  utto  to  K\l\xa  rf}^  Mvrj^Lvrj'^,  "  classed 
under  the  district  whose  governing  centre  is  Mnezos  ". 


XVI 

THE  VISITS  TO  JERUSALEM,  I  i8,  II  i  ff, 

"Then  in  the  third  year  (after  the  epoch-making  event)  I 
went  up  to  Jerusalem.  .  .  .  Then,  when  the  fourteenth  year 
(after  the  epoch)  had  come  I  went  up  again  to  Jerusalem." 

It  would  open  up  too  wide  a  subject  to  enter  on  the 
relation  between  the  narrative  of  Acts  and  the  account 
given  here  of  the  two  visits.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
reconciliation  of  this  account  with  Acts  presents  great 
difficulties.  Some  suppose  that  Luke  has  omitted  a  visit 
which  Paul  describes,  others  that  Paul  has  omitted  a  visit 
which  Luke  describes.  The  overwhelming  majority  of 
scholars  are  agreed  that  Paul  here  alludes  to  the  visits 
described  in  Acts  IX  26  and  XV  i  fif;  but  among  them 
there  reigns  the  keenest  controversy.  Many  hold  that 
Gal.  II  I  ff  is  contradictory  of  Acts  XV,  and  infer  that  the 
latter  is  not  a  trustworthy  account,  but  strongly  coloured 
and  even  distorted.  Others,  by  an  elaborate  argumenta- 
tion, prove  that  the  one  account  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
the  other. 

We  need  not  here  enter  on  this  large  subject.  It  will  be 
more  useful  merely  to  try  to  construct  from  Paul's  own 
words  the  picture  which  he  desired  to  place  before  his 
Galatian  readers.     He  describes  a  certain  historical  event. 


The   Visits  to  Jerusalem.  281 

He  paints  it  from  a  certain  point  of  view.  His  object  is  to 
rouse  a  certain  idea  of  it  in  his  Galatian  correspondents. 
It  is  admitted  by  all  that  the  author  of  Acts  paints  from 
a  different  point  of  view  and  with  a  different  object.  We 
need  not  discuss  the  question  whether  the  two  accounts 
can  be  harmonised.  The  Galatians  had  not  before  them 
the  book  of  Acts,  and  therefore  could  not  proceed  to  con- 
struct a  picture  by  comparing  that  account  with  Paul's. 
Some  of  them  had  certainly  heard  of  the  visits  to  Jerusalem 
before  they  received  this  letter  ;  but  Paul  had  been  their 
authority  at  first ;  and  now  he  repeats  briefly  to  all  what 
he  had  said  before  to  some  at  different  times. 

Let  us  then  try  simply  to  determine  what  is  the  fair  and 
natural  interpretation  of  this  sharp  and  emphatic  account. 
For  a  historian  it  would  be  necessary  to  add  details  that 
Paul  did  not  need  for  his  purpose,  but  which  Luke  thought 
necessary  for  his  history.  Each  had  to  omit  much  from 
his  brief  -account  Our  present  purpose  is  not  to  write  a 
history  ;  but  to  study  the  relations  between  Paul  and  the 
Galatians.  What  did  Paul  find  it  advisable  to  put  before 
them  regarding  these  visits  ? 

As  to  the  elements  common  to  the  two  accounts,  the 
opening  words — "  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem,"  "  I  went  up 
again  to  Jerusalem  " — naturally  suggest  that  Paul  is  giving 
an  account  of  his  successive  visits  to  Jerusalem. 

Apart  from  the  desire  to  harmonise  Luke  with  Paul, 
no  one  would  ever  have  inferred  from  these  words  that 
Paul's  intention  was  to  give  an  account  only  of  interviews 
with  Apostles,  and  that  he  omits  visits  to  Jerusalem 
on  which  he  did  not  see  Apostles.  As  we  shall  see 
immediately,  false  accounts  of  his  visits  to  Jerusalem  were 
current  and  were  injuring  his  cause:  it  was  declared  that 


282  The    Visits  to  Jerusalein. 

his  object  in  going  to  Jerusalem  was  to  get  authority  and 
commission  from  the  original  and  only  real  Apostles.  He 
therefore  shows  that  on  these  visits  he  got  no  authority 
or  commission  from  the  Apostles,  and  that  his  object  in 
going  up  was  quite  different.  We  should  not  naturally 
expect  that  he  would  pass  in  silence  over  one  of  the  visits 
thus  misrepresented,  because  the  facts  were  very  strongly 
in  his  favour  in  that  case.  He  mentions  exactly  whom  he 
saw  on  his  first  visit.  He  denies  that  he  saw  any  other 
Apostle  but  two.  If  on  a  second  visit  he  saw  no  Apostle, 
one  would  expect  him  to  mention  this. 

Throughout  the  description  of  the  visits,  what  is  stated 
is  greatly  determined  by  the  current  misrepresentations. 
Paul  is  not  giving  a  complete  history  of  what  occurred  on 
his  visits,  but  simply  tells  enough  to  correct  false  impressions 
or  statements. 

There  is,  however,  no  need  to  suppose  that  the 
Judaistic  emissaries  who  had  troubled  and  perverted  the 
Galatians  had  deliberately  falsified  the  narrative  :  the  events 
of  which  they  spoke  had  occurred  long  ago,  and  it  is  quite 
natural  and  probable  that  an  incorrect  account  might  have 
grown  up  among  the  strongly  prejudiced  adherents  of  the 
extreme  Judaistic  party  in  Jerusalem. 

Especially,  it  is  clear  that  they  forgot  how  long  an 
interval  had  elapsed  between  the  conversion  and  the  first 
visit.  They  spoke — and  doubtlessly  really  thought — as  if 
Paul  had  gone  up  to  Jerusalem  immediately  after  that 
epoch-making  event.  Hence  Paul  begins  by  denying  this, 
V.  16,  "immediately  I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood, 
neither  went  I  to  Jerusalem  to  them  which  were  Apostles 
before  me :  but  I  went  away  into  Arabia  ;  and  again  I 
returned  unto  Damascus". 


The  First   Visit  to  Jertisatem.  283 

XVII 

THE  FIRST  VISIT  TO  JERUSALEM,  I  18-20. 

As  to  the  first  visit  in  the  third  year,  there  is  little  to 
say.  Paul  tells  that  he  was  desirous  of  visiting  Cephas  ; 
and  he  eniploys  the  word  which  was  "  used  by  those  who 
go  to  see  great  and  famous  cities  ".^  He  is  careful  to  state 
quite  frankly  his  motive,  even  though  it  slightly  tells  against 
his  argument.  It  puts  Peter  on  an  elevation  of  importance 
and  dignity,  and  himself  on  the  level  of  the  tourist  who 
goes  to  see  the  great  man.  But  also  it  makes  the  situa- 
tion clear  :  he  went  to  Jerusalem  to  see  Peter  specially,  as 
a  distinguished  and  great  man,  whom  a  young  convert  like 
himself  regarded  with  peculiar  respect,  but  not  to  seek 
authority  or  commission  from  the  Apostles  as  an  official 
body.  He  recognises  fully  and  honourably  a  certain  rank 
and  weight  that  belonged  of  right  to  Peter  in  the  Church  ; 
and  he  desired  to  make  acquaintance  with  him  on  that 
account. 

The  visit  was  short.  He  continued  in  relations  with 
Peter  fifteen  days,  z>.,  if  he  saw  Peter  for  the  first  time  on 
the  first  day  of  the  month,  his  last  interview  with  him  was 
on  the  fifteenth.  As  his  object  was  to  see  Peter,  that 
must  be  taken  to  imply  that  his  stay  in  Jerusalem  was 
limited  to  that  time  :  he  repaired  to  Peter  as  soon  as  vv'as 
convenient  after  his  arrival,  and  left  immediately  after  he 
last  saw  him.  Of  the  other  Apostles  he  saw  only  James, 
and  the  most  natural  explanation  is  that  the  rest  were 
absent  on  various  duties.  It  is  not  a  natural  or  in  itself 
probable  inference  that,  though  others  were  present  in  the 

^  Lightfoot,  from  Chrysostom. 


284  The  First   Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

city,  Paul  was  kept  apart  from  them  by  Peter,  or  himself 
avoided  them.  If  he  desired  to  meet  Peter  it  would  be 
merely  irrational  to  avoid  the  others,  and  would  be  rather 
like  a  skulking  criminal  than  a  straightforward  man. 

Then  follows  the  solemn  oath  :  "  Now,  touching  the  things 
which  I  write  unto  you,  behold,  before  God,  I  lie  not " 
(I  20).  The  position  of  this  solemn  assurance  at  this  point 
implies  that  the  truth  about  the  first  visit  was  particularly 
important.  But  in  the  details  that  are  mentioned,  there  is 
nothing  that  seems  in  itself  important.  In  fact  the  account 
is  tantalisingly  empty  ;  it  does  not  even  assert  positively 
that  Peter  taught  Paul  no  part  of  his  Gospel  at  that  time. 
But  the  importance  of  the  account  lies  in  the  preceding 
events.  The  Judaising  party  had  given  a  different  account 
of  that  visit.  What  their  account  was  we  cannot  say  pre- 
cisely ;  but  clearly  it  slurred  over  the  interval  from  the 
conversion,  and  represented  the  first  visit  as  being  the 
occasion  when  Paul  received  a  commission  and  instructions 
from  the  body  of  the  Apostles  ;  and  the  brief  statement 
of  years  and  hours  and  names  disproved  it  without  further 
words.  As  to  learning  from  Peter,  Paul  had  probably 
always  openly  affirmed — what  is  here  tacitly  implied  in 
the  phrase  "to  visit  Cephas" — that  he  had  gained  much 
from  Peter's  knowledge  and  experience. 

If  there  existed  so  much  misapprehension — or  even  per- 
haps falsification,  though  we  personally  see  no  reason  to 
think  such  had  been  practised — about  the  first  visit,  we 
should  naturally  suppose  that  there  was  also  misapprehen- 
sion about  Paul's  other  visits,  as  if  these  had  been  frequent 
and  had  always  the  same  object  of  getting  instruction  and 
the  solution  of  difficulties  from  the  source  of  authority  in 
Jerusalem.    Such  had  been  the  object  of  one  visit,  described 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  285 

in  Acts  XV  :  no  one  could  deny  that ;  least  of  all  would 
Paul  deny  it.  The  Judaisers  generalised  from  that  visit, 
which  was  recent  and  familiar  to  all.  They  represented 
to  the  Galatians — doubtless  they  really  believed — that  the 
other  visits  were  undertaken  from  similar  motives.  Hence 
Paul  states  so  carefully  in  each  case  what  his  motive  really 
was.  His  statements  are  all  intended  to  correct  false 
conceptions. 

XVIII 

THE  SECOND  VISIT  TO  JERUSALEM,  II  i-io. 

This  visit  is  described  much  more  fully  than  the  first  visit. 
The  narrative  is  most  difficult  to  understand.  The  Galatians 
could  understand  it,  because  it  to  a  considerable  extent 
merely  recalled  to  them  what  they  knew  already.  Modern 
readers  find  it  obscure,  because  they  have  no  certainty  as 
to  the  facts  that  are  alluded  to.  Every  modern  commen- 
tator holds  some  theory  as  to  the  correspondence  with 
Acts  ;  he  identifies  the  visit  described  by  Paul  with  some 
visit  described  by  Luke,  and  reads  into  Paul's  narrative  the 
spirit  and  even  the  incidents  of  Acts.  Paul's  narrative  is 
broken  by  the  omission  of  words  essential  to  strict  gram- 
matical construction.  Each  commentator  naturally  fills  up 
the  gaps  according  to  his  own  theory  and  his  conception  of 
the  events.  Thus,  for  example,  Lightfoot  makes  out  of 
Paul's  words  a  story  very  like  the  account  given  in  Acts 
XV ;  but  most  of  the  resemblances  are  inserted  bodily  to 
complete  Paul's  broken  clauses. 

It  is  specially  necessary  in    this  case  to  carry  out  our 
principle  ;  ^  to  add  nothing,  to  rigidly  restrict  ourselves  to 

1  See  p.  280  f. 


286  The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

the  actual  words  of  Paul,  and  to  elicit  from  them  only  what 
fairly  and  certainly  lies  in  them.  To  do  so,  one  must 
exercise  self-restraint — one  must  confess  that  in  several 
places  want  of  knowledge  of  facts  known  to  the  Galatians 
leaves  us  in  uncertainty. 

The  following  pages  are  written  without  a  fixed  theory. 
Mr.  Vernon  Bartlet,  in  a  paper  now  in  type  but  unpublished, 
has  convinced  me  that  there  is  a  tenable  hypothesis,  which 
in  my  previous  discussion  of  the  subject  ^  was  not  taken 
into  account :  we  have  no  assurance  that  Luke  describes 
all  Paul's  visits  to  Jerusalem  :  he  had  to  omit  many  things 
from  his  very  concise  history :  it  is  perfectly  conceivable 
that  Paul  and  Barnabas  may  have  been  ordered  by  revela- 
tion to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  at  some  point  such  as  Acts  XI 
26  or  elsewhere,  and  that  Luke  left  this  visit  unmentioned 
(as  he  did  the  Arabian  visit),  because  he  considered  it  to 
lie  outside  of  the  thread  of  his  historical  purpose.  That  is 
a  fair  theory,  which  at  present  I  dare  neither  reject  nor 
accept ;  and  therefore  in  the  ensuing  discussion  there  lurks 
no  identification  with  any  visit  described  by  Luke. 

As  to  the  general  character  of  Paul's  narrative,  we  must 
bear  always  in  mind  that  his  intention  is  not  to  give  a 
history  of  his  visit,  or  to  tell  why  he  made  the  visit  and 
how  he  carried  his  primary  object  into  effect.  The  narrative 
is  introduced  because  of  its  bearing  on  the  question  now  at 
issue  in  the  Galatian  Churches.  Paul's  point  in  ch.  I,  II, 
lies  in  this,  that  he  is  the  Apostle  charged  by  God  to  the 
Gentiles,  that  he  was  accepted  as  such  by  the  chief  x'\postles, 
that  he  gave  a  message  direct  from  God  to  the  Galatians, 
and  that  he  was  not  commissioned   or  instructed  by  the 

1  In  Expositor,  August,  1895,  p.  105  ff,  also  the  papers  in  Expositor, 
March,  July,  1896. 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  287 

older  Apostles  to  deliver  any  message  to  them  at  first, 
though  at  a  later  stage  he  was  commissioned  to  deliver 
to  them  the  Apostolic  Decree. 

In  the  account  which  we  have  now  to  study,  the  essential 
and  fundamental  fact  emerges  clear  to  every  reader  that  in 
the  fourteenth  year  from  the  epoch-making  event  ^  Paul 
communicated  in  a  certain  way  to  certain  Apostles  in 
Jerusalem  the  Gospel  which  he  preaches,  everywhere  and 
always,  to  the  Gentiles,  and  that  they  approved  his  Gospel. 
This  communication  was  an  event  of  the  utmost  importance. 
We  must  lay  the  utmost  stress  on  it,  as  Paul  evidently  did. 
It  is  the  essential  proof  of  the  vital  harmony  that  existed 
among  the  four  great  Christian  leaders.  Paul  tells  us  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  communication  was  made,  and 
the  cause  that  brought  it  about,  and  his  intention  in  making 
it,  and  the  reception  which  the  three  chiefs  gave  to  it. 
Such  fulness  in  this  brief  historical  retrospect  is  proof  of 
the  cardinal  importance  of  the  communication.  The  whole 
history  of  the  early  stages  of  that  first  great  controversy  in 
the  Church  lies  before  us  in  that  sentence.  When  the 
sentence  is  rightly  understood,  it  disproves  conclusively 
many  laboriously  spun  modern  theories  as  to  the  dissensions 
between  the  four  leaders,  "  the  discrepancies  of  Petrine  and 
Pauline  tradition,"  and  all  the  rest  of  those  airy  cobwebs. 
Those  theories  all  depend  on  misconstruction  and  mistrans- 
lation. And  many  more  theories  will  have  to  be  abandoned 
for  the  same  reason,  before  the  essential  unity  and  perfection 
of  early  Christian  history  is  appreciated. 

It  is  not  our  purpose,  however,  to  touch  on  any  of  those 
theories ;    but  simply  to  determine  what  Paul  meant  the 

'  The  epoch,  as  we  hold,  §  XIII,  was  his  conversion. 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 


Galatians  to  gather.  Only  we  must  plead  against  the  fixed 
belief  entertained  by  many  that  the  interpretation  is  now 
certain,  and  that  discussion  is  closed.  The  Tubingen 
scholars  founded  their  theory  on  a  false  interpretation. 
The  present  dominant  interpretations  are  all  founded  on  a 
theory  of  identification  with  Luke,  and  differ  in  many 
details  from  one  another.  We  cannot  see  that  the  now 
dominant  theory  is  any  more  certain  than  the  Tubingen 
interpretation.^ 

In  fact  the  dominant  interpretations  seem  to  be  all 
too  much  influenced  by  prepossessions  derived  from  the 
Tubingen  theories.  Those  theories  have  deservedly  and 
rightly  exercised  a  strong  influence  on  all  thinking  minds. 
There  was  a  natural  and  healthy  tendency  even  among 
opponents  (at  least  the  best  of  them),  not  merely  to  assimi- 
late the  lofty  and  noble  qualities  of  the  Tubingen  criticism, 
but  also  to  adopt  as  much  as  possible  of  its  results.  In 
regard  to  this  passage  in  Galatians,  this  prepossession  has 
had  unfortunate  results,  which  will  last  for  some  time  yet. 

Here  once  more,  as  in  many  other  points,  our  first  duty 
is  to  protest  against  the  closed  door  by  which  so  many 
scholars  try  to  bar  our  investigations.  History  in  all  de- 
partments is  being  rewritten  in  the  present  age.  The  most 
important,  and  one  of  the  most  difficult,  episodes  in  history 
is  the  early  stage  in  the  growth  of  Christianity.  Here  of 
all  places  it  is  unsuitable  to  assume  certainty,  and  to  refuse 
to  reconsider  without  prejudice  dominant  theories. 

We,  at  any  rate,  shall  try  to  write  here  without  any  theory 
in  the  mind  on  this  point. 

What  a  sentence  it  is  that  we  have  to  study  !     Involved 

1  It  is  not  meant  that  all  the  "  Tubingen  School  "  agreed  exactly, 
but  that  there  is  a  general  agreement  in  character. 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  289 

and  perplexed,  taking  up  one  point,  abandoning  it,  resuming 
it,  explaining,  correcting,  returning  on  itself.  Never  was 
such  a  sentence  penned  by  mortal  man  before  or  since. 
Never  has  so  much  been  said  in  so  few  words  ;  and  never 
has  it  been  said  in  such  defiance  of  ordinary  construction, 
and  yet  on  such  a  high  intellectual  level.  The  one  thing 
on  which  all  commentators  are  agreed  is  the  terrific,  awe- 
inspiring  nature  of  that  portentous  sentence  ;  for  though 
one  may  thrust  in  a  period  here  or  there,  it  is  really  one 
sentence  that  runs  through  the  verses  i-io. 

But  at  least  the  spirit  of  the  narrative  is  clear.  The  spirit 
is  unity,  concord,  hearty  agreement  between  Paul  and  the 
great  Apostles,  "  the  acknowledged  leaders  ",  That  is  the 
impression  which  any  one  who  reads  the  words  of  Paul 
without  prepossession  by  Luke's  accounts  must  derive. 
Paul  consulted  them  ;  they  heard  :  they  gave  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship  to  the  two  new  Apostles  to  the  Gentiles  : 
they  made  a  formal  partition  of  the  work  that  lay  before 
the  young  Church — Barnabas  and  Paul  to  the  Gentiles, 
the  older  Apostles  to  the  Jews. 

That  being  so,  is  it  permissible  to  suppose  that  Paul 
succeeds  in  conveying  that  impression  by  omitting  all  the 
facts  which  showed  disagreement  between  himself  and  the 
older  Apostles?  This  question  ought  to  be  fairly  faced 
and  answered  by  all  commentators.  But  certainly  some  of 
them  do  not  face  it ;  they  unconsciously  hide  it  from  them- 
selves. Here  on  our  principles  we  must  answer  "  No  ".  It  is 
not  open  to  us  to  think  that  Paul  attained  his  effect  by  omit- 
ting what  told  against  him.  His  solemn  oath  before  God 
that  he  is  telling  the  truth  is  not  needed  to  convince  us. 
We  know  that  he  rested  on  the  truth  for  his  influence  on 
men's  minds,  that  without  the  truth  his  moral  power  was  lost. 

19 


290  The  Second  Visit  to  Jeritsalem. 

In  passing,  we  notice  the  really  almost  comic — were  it 
not  almost  tragic — argument  in  Meyer-Sieffert  that  Paul's 
solemn  oath,  I  20,  refers  only  to  the  preceding  part  of  the 
narrative.^  The  apparent  implication  is  that  Paul  was  not 
so  careful  to  tell  the  truth  in  the  rest  of  his  narrative. 
Hence  they,  and  all  who  found  their  interpretation  on  the 
theory  that  Paul  is  telling  of  the  visit  which  Luke  describes 
in  Acts  XV,  assume  that  Paul  omits  various  incidents, 
which  were  not  so  clearly  in  his  favour  as  those  that  he 
mentions.  Hence  they  insert  in  the  breaks  of  Paul's 
hurried  and  disjointed  narrative  such  facts  as  the  disagree- 
ment between  Paul  and  the  Three  on  the  question  whether 
Titus  should  be  circumcised  :  see  below,  p.  297. 

Accordingly,  our  first  principle  in  approaching  Paul's 
narrative  is  this  :  we  must  be  slow  to  interpolate  in  the 
breaks  of  his  story  facts  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  what  he 
explicitly  relates. 

Another  essential  preliminary  to  the  right  interpreting 
of  the  narrative  is  to  apprehend  correctly  the  distinction 
between  the  tenses.  This  is  very  subtle  throughout  the 
whole  historical  retrospect,  I  ii-H  10.  Paul  distinguishes 
carefully  between  those  actions  which  belonged  to  a  definite 
point  in  the  series  of  past  events  {aorist),  those  actions 
which  continued  for  a  period  but  are  not  thought  of  as  con- 
tinuing at  the  moment  of  writing  {imperfect),  and  those 
actions  which  are  marked  as  permanent  and  true  down  to 
the  moment  of  writing  {present).  This  distinction  is  well 
brought  out  in  I  15  :  "And  when  it  seemed  fit  {aorist)  to 
God,  who  set  me  apart  from  my  birth  and  called  me  through 

^  Abschliessend  nurauf  das  Vorige,  vv.  18,  19.  Lightfoot  expresses  no 
opinion  ;  but  his  interpretation  of  I  20,  "  I  declare  to  you  that  every 
word  I  write  is  true,"  tells  rather  against  Meyer-Sieffert. 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  291 

His  grace  (aorists)  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me  {aorisf),  so  that 
I  preach  Him  {present)  among  the  Gentiles".  When  the 
due  moment  arrived,  God  revealed  His  will  to  Paul  and 
called  him.  These  are  two  definite  acts  which  produced 
certain  lasting  consequences,  but  were  themselves  momen- 
tary. But  the  purpose  and  the  result  of  the  call  was  that 
Paul  became,  and  continued  until  the  moment  of  writing 
to  be,  the  preacher  among  the  Gentiles.  Again  in  I  22  :  "I 
continued  unknown  {imperfect)  by  face  to  the  churches  of 
Judea "  (this  is  not  said  to  be  true  at  the  time  of  writing, 
though  it  lasted  for  many  years)  ;  "  and  they  continued  to 
hear  reports  {imperfect)  that  *  our  persecutor  ^  is  now  preach- 
ing {present')  the  gospel  which  formerly  he  was  attempting 
to  destroy '  {imperfect),  and  they  continually  expressed  their 
{imperfect)  admiration  of  God's  action  in  my  case".  Such 
was  their  conduct  for  a  number  of  years :  the  writer  does 
not  indicate  that  they  continue  now  to  do  so  (partly, 
such  reports  were  no  longer  needed,  and  his  conduct  was 
no  longer  a  cause  of  wonder  and  special  attention  ;  partly, 
many  in  the  Judaean  churches  were  now  opposed  to  him, 
and  would  no  longer  praise  or  admire  what  he  was  doing 
for  the  Church). 

When  we  apply  this  principle  to  the  hard  passage  H  i-io, 
several  of  the  difficulties  disappear,  and  some  misconceptions 
are  cleared  away. 

A  special  contrast  is  indicated  between  a  present  and  an 
aorist  in  the  following  cases  : — 

V.  2,"  I  laid  before  them  {aorist)  the  gospel  which  I  continue 
preaching  to  the  present  day  among  the  Gentiles  {present)  ". 

^  The  participle  Stoxwj'  permits  no  inference;  present  and  imperfect 
coincide  in  the  participle.  The  only  distinction  in  the  participle  is 
between  aorist  II  i,  7,  9,  and  present-imperfect. 


292  The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

V.  2,  "  To  prevent  the  work  of  my  whole  life  {present),  or 
my  work  then  {aorist),  from  being  ineffectual ". 

V.  10,  "  Only  (they  instructed  me)  to  remember  perma- 
nently {present)  the  poor,  which  I  then  made  it  my  object 
to  do  {aorist) ". 

A  difficult  contrast  between  present  and  imperfect  occurs 
in  V.  6  :  "  it  matters  not  in  my  estimation  (now  or  then,  or  at 
any  time,  present)  by  what  conduct  and  character  they  were 
marked  out  before  the  world  for  their  dignified  and  in- 
fluential position  {imperfect)." 

The  necessity  for  the  imperfect  here  becomes  clearer  if 
we  substitute  the  present,  and  observe  that  the  change  gives 
an  inadmissible  sense.  "  What  their  permanent  character 
is  matters  not  to  me  "  {oiroloi  irore  elcrlv  ovSiv  fiot  Siaipipei) 
would  be  a  sentiment  unsuitable  to  the  argument,  and 
hardly  becoming  in  Paul's  mouth.  The  sense  of  what  he 
says  is,  "  I  grant  that  their  conduct  had  been  noble  and 
their  prominent  position  was  deserved,  but  God,  who  re- 
spects not  persons,  had  chosen  to  communicate  directly 
with  me  and  through  me  to  the  Gentiles ;  and  I  could  not 
put  myself  under  their  directions  ". 

Still  more  clear  does  the  necessity  for  the  imperfect  be- 
come if  we  take  the  sense  preferred  by  Lightfoot  :  he  says, 
"  it  does  not  mean  '  what  reputation  they  enjoyed,'  but 
'  what  was  their  position,  what  were  their  advantages,  in 
former  times,  referring  to  their  personal  intercourse  with 
the  Lord ' ". 

The  many  aorists  of  this  passage  are  clear  :  each  of  them 
denotes  an  act  in  the  drama,  which  is  described.  They 
need  no  elucidation  or  comment  except  the  following  in  v. 
5  :  "we  resisted  them  then  that  the  truth  of  the  Gospel 
might  continue  {aorist)  for  you  ".     Here  it  may  seem  that 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  293 

the  aorist  expresses  an  action  that  continues  to  the  moment 
of  writing.  That,  however,  is  not  so  :  the  action  belonged 
to  the  moment,  though  its  result  lasts  down  to  the  time  of 
writing  ;  and  this  becomes  clear  if  we  put  the  proposition 
in  another  form,  "  we  resisted  them  then  that  the  truth 
might  not  by  our  compliance  be  interrupted  and  prevented 
from  continuing  for  you  ".  The  aorist  is  required  to  express 
"  might  not  be  interrupted,"  and  it  is  therefore  required  to 
express  "  might  continue  ". 

Now  let  us  review  successively  the  points  that  are  clearly 
stated  in  Paul's  account  of  the  visit,  remembering  always 
that  nothing  is  mentioned  except  what  had  a  bearing  on 
the  Galatian  difficulty. 

In  company  with  him  were  Barnabas  and  Titus.  The 
mention  of  Barnabas  as  a  companion  is  probably  intended 
to  recall  past  events  to  his  readers.  Barnabas  was  well- 
known  to  them.^  The  companionship  of  Titus  is  mentioned, 
because  something  important  for  Paul's  purpose  among 
the  Galatians  was  connected  with  him. 

In  what  capacity  did  these  two  go  up  ?  The  expressions 
used  imply  that  the  two  did  not  stand  on  the  same  footing. 
Barnabas  and  Paul  are  spoken  of  as  if  they  were  conjoined 
and  equal :  "  I  went  up  with  Barnabas  ".  Titus  was  only 
a  subordinate,  "taking  also  Titus  with  us".  This  word, 
"  taking,"  in  the  three  other  cases  ^  where  it  occurs  in  the 
New  Testament,  is  applied  to  a  private  companion  or 
minister,  who  is  not  sent  forth  on  the  mission  as  an  envoy, 
but  is  taken  by  the  envoys  on  their  own  authority.  Here 
Barnabas  and  Paul  were  official  messengers  ;  and  Titus  is 
taken  with  them  on  their  own  responsibility. 

^  See  §§  III,  IV.         "  (jvviva^aKa^iov,  Acts  XII  25,  XV  37,  38. 


294  ^^^  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

The  translation  "taking  Titus  with  w^^"  is  unjustifiable, 
and  wrongly  imputes  to  Paul  an  assumption  of  superiority 
over  Barnabas.^  The  use  of  the  participle  in  the  singular 
is  necessitated  by  the  form  of  the  sentence  :  "  I  went  up 
with  Barnabas,  taking  Titus  ".  The  case  is  precisely  ana- 
logous to  Acts  XV  37,  "  Barnabas  wished  to  take  with  them 
John  also  " }  It  would  be  as  reasonable  there  to  translate, 
"  Barnabas  wished  to  take  John  also  with  him"  as  it  is  here 
to  translate  "  Paul  took  Titus  also  with  him  ". 

What  is  the  force  of  "  also  Titus  "  ?  In  this  detail,  too, 
Acts  XV  37  furnishes  a  perfect  analogy  :  "  Barnabas  wished 
to  take  with  them  also  John  ".  In  that  case  there  is  no 
other  possible  sense  than  "  in  addition  to  themselves  "  ;  and 
so  it  is  in  this  case.  Titus  was  taken  in  addition  to  the 
official  envoys. 

The  reason  for  the  visit  lay  in  revelation.  This  state- 
ment must  be  taken  as  a  denial  that  the  visit  was  undertaken 
for  the  reason  alleged  by  the  Judaisers,  see  p.  281  f.  Paul 
says  nothing  as  to  the  recipient  of  the  revelation.  A  Divine 
revelation  to  one  man  was  binding  on  all  whom  it  con- 
cerned.^ Of  course  the  a  priori  presumption  is  in  favour 
of  this  revelation  having  been  made  to  Paul  himself:  but 
we  cannot  safely  say  more  than  this  :  a  Divine  revelation 
was  made,  necessitating  the  journey  of  Paul  and  Barnabas 
to  Jerusalem,  and  the  journey  was  not  taken  by  Paul 
through  desire  to  get  instruction  or  commission  from  the 
Apostles. 

^  Meyer-Sieffert  explicitly  claim  that  Paul  is  here  assuming  his 
superiority  to  Barnabas. 

'^  Galatians  II  1,  ai/i^rjv  .  .  .  a-wirapaXafiav  Koi  Titov,  Acts  XV 
37,  f^ovXfTo  avvnapaXa^tlv  Koi  tov  'lo)dvvrfv. 

3  Acts  XI  28. 


The  Second   Visit  to  Jerusalem.  295 

Paul  gives  no  hint  as  to  the  immediate  purpose  of  that 
visit.  The  incidents  which  he  relates  as  occurring  during 
the  visit  are  described  as  arising  out  of  the  circumstances 
existing  in  Jerusalem, 

Lightfoot  connects  closely,  "  I  went  up  by  revelation  and 
laid  before  them  the  Gospel  which  I  preach,"  giving  the 
appearance  that  the  setting  forth  of  Paul's  Gospel  had  been 
the  object  of  his  journey.  He  agrees  with  the  Authorised 
Version,  with  Tischendorf  and  others.  But  the  Revised 
Version  and  the  text  of  Westcott  and  Hort  are  right  in 
separating  the  two  statements  by  a  colon — "  and  I  went  up 
by  revelation  :  and  I  laid  before  them  my  gospel,  but 
privately  ". 

Paul  laid  his  Gospel  before  them  {i.e.,  those  in  Jerusalem), 
but  privately,  before  them  of  repute  (whom  afterwards  he 
names,  Peter  and  James  and  John).  "  The  wide  assertion 
is  forthwith  limited  by  the  second  clause  "  '(Alford),  This 
had  an  important  bearing  on  the  misrepresentations  of  the 
Judaisers:  he  did  not  lay  his  Gospel  officially  before  the 
assembly  of  the  Apostles,  but  privately  before  the  Three. 
It  is  merely  unreasonable  to  understand  with  some  that 
Paul  made  both  a  public  exposition  before  the  whole  Church, 
and  a  private  esoteric  exposition  before  the  Three. 

The  question  which  underlies  this  whole  historical  retro- 
spect is  whether  or  not  Paul  had  sought  official  guidance 
and  official  authorisation  from  the  Apostles  in  regard  to 
his  message  to  the  Galatians.  He  maintains  and  asseverates 
that  it  came  from  God  alone,  and  was  delivered  to  them 
from  God  through  himself.  It  would  be  absurd,  and  worse 
than  absurd,  that  Paul  should  assure  the  Galatians  that  he 
consulted  the  Three  privately,  if  he  also  laid  it  before  them 
in  public  in  their  official  assembly.     We  must  understand 


296  The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

Paul  to  imply  that  he  made  no  public  consultation  on  this 
subject. 

The  verb  used,  "laid  before  them,"  is  interpreted  by 
Lightfoot  as  "  related  with  a  view  to  consulting ".  He 
quotes  Acts  XXV  14,  "  Festus  laid  Paul's  case  before  the 
king,"  and  remarks  that  there  the  idea  of  consultation  is 
brought  out  very  clearly  by  the  context,  vv.  20,  26.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  quote  corroborative  examples  from  other 
Greek  literature :  they  are  numerous. 

Paul,  therefore,  asked  the  advice  of  the  three  great 
Apostles  as  to  the  Gospel  which  he  proposed  to  preach,  or 
was  preaching,  among  the  Gentiles.  It  is  difficult  to  suppose 
that  he  asked  their  advice  about  a  Gospel  which  he  had 
already  been  preaching — that,  after  delivering  the  message 
from  God  to  the  Gentiles,  he  asked  the  counsel  of  any  man 
about  that  message.  When  that  Gospel  was  still  hid  in 
his  own  mind,  when  he  had  not  yet  full  confidence  that  he 
fully  comprehended  it,  he  might  consult  the  three  leaders 
about  it.  After  it  had  fixed  itself  in  his  nature  as  the  truth 
of  God,  so  that  he  had  proclaimed  it  broadcast  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, he  no  longer  "  conferred  with  flesh  and  blood  ". 

We  are  therefore  placed  in  this  dilemma :  either  Paul 
consulted  the  Three  before  he  promulgated  his  Gospel  in 
its  fully  developed  form,  or  there  is  no  idea  of  "consultation" 
in  the  verb  which  he  here  employs.  The  second  alternative 
seems  to  me  excluded.  All  readers  must  judge  for  them- 
selves. 

That  Paul's  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles  was  not  fully  matured 
until  shortly  before  the  beginning  of  the  first  journey  (Acts 
XIII  i)  will  be  set  forth  more  fully  elsewhere.  That  it  was 
fully  matured  when  he  preached  in  South  Galatia  on  that 
journey  will  hardly  be  disputed  by  any  unprejudiced  reader. 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  297 

Accordingly,  we  conclude  Paul  consulted  the  three  leaders 
privately  and  apart,  not  in  public  council  ;  as  friends,  not 
as  authoritative  guides.  What  a  revelation  is  this  as  to  the 
forethought  and  statesmanship  with  which  the  diffusion  of 
the  Gospel  through  the  civilised,  i.e.,  the  Roman,  world  was 
planned  !  We  cannot  here  dilate  further  on  the  immense 
significance  of  that  private  ^  interview  between  the  Four — 
the  head  of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem,  and  the  Three  who 
in  succession  controlled  and  counselled  the  Church  in  the 
Roman  world.     I  hope  to  do  so  elsewhere  at  an  early  date. 

Next  Paul  states  his  object.  "  I  consulted  them — but 
privately — to  prevent  my  work  as  it  continues  now,  or 
my  work  then,  from  being  ineffectual."  ^  Does  Paul  mean 
that  he  consulted  them  for  that  reason,  or  that  he  con- 
sulted them  privately  for  that  reason  ?  Clearly  the  former  : 
he  consulted  them  to  avoid  future  misunderstanding,  to 
ensure  unity,  in  the  plans  and  views  of  the  Church.  But 
he  took  care  to  do  it  privately,  by  reason  of  the  false 
brethren,^  as  he  explains  in  v.  4. 

Now  Paul  diverges  from  the  path  of  the  proper  topic. 
It  bears  on  the  Galatian  interest  that  not  even  Titus, 
his  companion,  Greek  as  he  was,  was  compelled  to  accept 
circumcision. 

The  question  here  rises,  was  Titus's  case  made  the  subject 
of  an  open  discussion  and  decided  in  the  negative  ?  Many 
commentators  assume  that  the  extreme  party  formally  con- 
tended that  Titus  must  submit  to  the  rite,  and  that  it  was 
decided  that  he  should  not  be  forced  to  submit.  This  seems 
not  to  be  the  natural  force  of  the  passage,  but  rather  to  be 

^  Meyer-Sieffert's  rendering  is  abgesondert,  privatim. 

"^  On  the  tenses,  see  p.  290  f. 

^  Meyer-Sieffert  translates  the  clause  ^rintos  k.t.X.  quite  differently. 


298  The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

forced-  into    it   through   the   inclination   to   read    into   this 
passage  as  much  as  possible  out  of  Acts  XV. 

The  plain  meaning  of  the  Greek  words  is  that  the  ques- 
tion was  not  formally  raised,  nor  publicly  decided  :  Titus 
was  left  free  and  unconstrained:  nobody  compelled  him: 
he  was  let  alone. 

Had  the  question  been  raised  formally,  it  would  have 
been  a  test  case.  Titus  was  distinctly  a  person  of  standing 
in  the  Church ;  and  if  the  Apostles  had  solemnly  and  officially 
decided,  after  the  question  had  been  formally  raised  and 
discussed,  that  Titus  need  not  accept  the  rite,  that  would 
have  practically  decided  the  present  case  in  Galatia.  The 
Apostolic  Decree  in  Acts  XV  did  not  constitute  a  thorough 
decision,  for  it  was  too  general  and  was  open  to  miscon- 
struction ;  ^  but  the  judgment  about  a  person  in  the  position 
of  Titus  would  have  been  decisive,  and  Paul  could  hardly 
have  avoided  mentioning  more  clearly  the  judgment,  if 
there  had  been  one. 

But  most  entirely  opposed  to  the  plain  sense  of  the  Greek 
is  the  interpretation  that  the  question  was  raised  ;  that  the 
extremists  contended  that  Titus  must  be  circumcised  ;  that 
"  concession  was  even  urged  upon  Paul  in  high  quarters  as 
a  measure  of  prudence  to  disarm  opposition  ; "  but  he  "  did 
not  for  a  moment  yield  to  this  pressure  ".^  That  sense  is 
got  by  bringing  together  statements  which  Paul  keeps 
separate.  And  how  utterly  does  it  sacrifice  the  unity  of 
feeling  and  thought  and  aim  among  the  Four,  which  is  the 
plain  implication  of  the  passage,  when  read  without  the 
purpose  to  squeeze  it  into  conformity  with  Acts  XV.  The 
whole  harmony  and  beauty  of  the  picture  is  destroyed  by 
the  interpolated  idea. 

»  See  §§  VIII,  XXVII.       « Quotations  from  Lightfoot,  p.  105. 


The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem.  299 

After  the  parenthetic  remark  about  Titus,  Paul  again 
takes  up  the  thread,  employing  the  particle  Se  to  indicate 
resumption  of  the  topic  after  a  digression.  "  Now  it  was 
because  of  certain  insinuating  sham  brethren,  who  crept 
into  our  society,  without  avowing  their  real  intentions,  to 
act  the  spy  on  our  freedom,  which  we  true  Christians  enjoy 
in  Christ  Jesus,  in  order  to  enslave  us  {to  their  ritualistic 
acts)  :  "  Paul  means,  "It  was  because  of  them  that  I  acted 
thus,"  but  he  is  led  on  away  from  the  grammatical  form 
into  an  account  of  his  relations  with  the  false  brethren  :  "  to 
whom  we  did  not  for  a  moment  yield  by  complying  with 
their  suggestions,  our  object  being  to  ensure  that  the  Gospel 
in  its  truth  should  continue  for  you  to  enjoy  ". 

The  interpretation  seems  clear.  During  the  stay  in  Jeru- 
salem, certain  brethren  came  about  them,  and  observed 
with  disapproval  the  relations  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  to 
Titus,  and  mentioned  their  opinion  on  the  subject ;  but  the 
two  Apostles  of  the  Gentiles  firmly  resisted  them  ;  and, 
warned  by  this  experience,  Paul  (with  or  without  Barnabas  ^) 
laid  their  whole  scheme  of  a  Gospel  for  the  Gentiles 
privately  before  the  Three. 

Paul's  sense  of  right  is  shocked  by  the  conduct  of  those 
brethren  :  his  words  distinctly  imply  that  they  came  to 
visit  as  pretended  friends,  and  used  knowledge  acquired 
in  private  social  intercourse  to  injure  Paul  among  others. 

The  result  of  the  communication  follows  :  "  but  from  the 
recognised  leaders — how  distinguished  soever  was  their 
character  matters  not  to  me :  God  accepteth  not  man's 
person  ".     Here  once  more  Paul  breaks  the  grammatical 

1  In  this  passage  Barnabas,  assuredly,  is  to  be  assumed  as  through- 
out united  with  Paul ;  but  the  special  purpose  requires  Paul  to  use 
the  singular. 


300  The  Second  Visit  to  Jerusalem. 

thread,  and  resumes  with  '^ap  and  a  different  grammatical 
construction — *'  the  recognised  leaders,  I  say,  imparted  no 
new  instruction  to  me ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  perceiving 
that  I  throughout  my  ministry  have  been  charged  specially 
with  the  non-Jewish  mission  as  Peter  is  with  the  Jewish 
— for  he  that  worked  for  Peter  towards  the  apostolate  of 
the  circumcision  worked  also  for  me  towards  the  mission  to 
the  Gentiles — and  perceiving  y>'o;/z  the  facts  the  grace  that 
had  been  given  me,  they,  James  and  Cephas  and  John,  the 
recognised  pillars  of  the  Church,  gave  pledges  to  me  and 
to  Barnabas  of  a  joint  scheme  of  work,  ours  towards  the 
Gentiles,  and  theirs  towards  the  Jews.  One  charge  alone 
they  gave  us,  to  remember  the  poor,  which  duty  as  a  matter 
of  fact  I  then  made  it  a  special  object  to  perform." 

The  final  words,  on  account  of  the  aorist,  must  on  the 
principles  laid  down  above,  p.  290  f,  be  understood  as  "an 
act  in  the  drama  which  then  occurred  ".  If  Paul  meant 
that  he  subsequently  was  and  still  continued  to  be  zealous 
in  that  way,  he  would  have  used  the  present  tense :  the 
aorist  denotes  something  that  was  actually  part  of  the 
incidents  in  Jerusalem.  Paul  therefore  was  helping  the 
poor  in  Jerusalem — which  we  may  take  it  as  certain  that 
he  did  on  every  visit,  as  e.g.,  Acts  XXI. 

The  analogy  of  Ephesians  IV  3  ^  might  lead  us  even 
further.  The  same  verb  is  there  used  to  indicate  the 
prominent  object,  "giving  diligence  to  keep  the  unity  of 
the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  ".  Does  it  here  indicate 
that  charity  to  the  poor  was  the  main  object  of  the  visit — 
not  merely  an  act  in  the  drama,  but  the  principal  act  ? 

Some  commentators   attribute  a  depreciatory  sense  to 

^  iTTrowSdfoi'rey  rrjpe'iv  rr}v  ivorrjra,  Eph.  IV  3,  o  icai  ((rnov^acra  avTO 
TOVTo  TTOi^crai,  Gal.  II  10- 


Limits  and  Purpose  of  the  Autobiography.     301 

hoKovvre^,  "the  so-called  leaders".  This  is  not  justifi- 
able. The  Greek  word  means  "  the  recognised  or  accepted 
leaders".  Lightfoot  quotes  examples  of  a  depreciatory  sense 
for  So/covi/re?,  but  in  them  all  the  depreciatory  innuendo 
comes  from  the  context  and  not  from  the  word.  To 
attribute  such  a  meaning  to  it  here  is  out  of  keeping  with 
Paul's  courteous  tone  to  the  leaders,  and  is  also  opposed 
to  the  spirit  which  we  have  recognised  in  this  narrative 
(see  p.  289). 

XIX 

LIMITS  AND  PURPOSE  OF  THE  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

This  autobiographical  sketch — from  I  12  to  near  the  end 
of  II — entirely  depends  on  I  11  :  "I  make  known  ^  to  you," 
i.e.,  I  proceed  to  show  you,  "  as  touching  the  Gospel  which 
was  preached  by  me,  that  it  is  not  after  man".  Then 
follows  the  statement  of  the  facts  showing  that  the  Gospel 
which  Paul  preached  came  to  him  from  God  originally, 
and,  so  far  from  having  ever  been  suggested  to  him  by  the 
Apostles,  had  on  the  contrary  been  stated  by  him  to  them 
in  Jerusalem,  and  approved  by  them  without  any  reserva- 
tion or  addition  or  suggestion,  except  that  he  should 
remember  the  poor  (which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  his 
object  then  to  do). 

This  autobiographical  statement  of  facts  falls  into  three 
parts.  First,  the  character  of  his  life  before  his  conversion 
is  briefly  described,  in  order  to  bring  out  what  an  epoch  it 
was,  what  a  complete  reversal  of  his  previous  career. 

1  This  formula  (confined  to  the  group  Rom.,  Cor.,  Gal.)  "introduces 
some  statement  on  which  the  Apostle  lays  special  emphasis"  (Light- 
foot). 


302     Limits  and  Purpose  of  the  Autobiography. 

Secondly,  he  gives  an  outline  of  his  movements,  intended 
to  bring  out  how  rare  and  short  had  been  his  opportunities 
of  learning  from  the  older  Apostles.  When  his  visit  to 
Jerusalem  was  very  short  he  counts  even  the  days.  Then 
he  contrasts  these  days  with  the  years  that  elapsed  between 
the  first  and  the  second  visit. 

The  effect  of  the  contrast  between  fifteen  days  in  Jeru- 
salem and  fourteen  years  in  Syria-Cilicia  is  great ;  and  it 
must  have  been  greater  to  the  Galatians,  because  they  had 
been  listening  to  descriptions  of  Paul's  indebtedness  to  the 
older  Apostles,  his  frequent  consultation  of  them,  and  so 
on.  But  the  North  Galatians  insist  that  this  telling  fact — 
fourteen  days  spent  in  Jerusalem  during  the  first  seventeen 
years  of  his  Christian  life — is  got  by  leaving  out  one  visit 
to  Jerusalem  :  in  fact,  that  it  is  obtained  by  suppression  of 
truth. 

The  outline  of  his  movements  stops,  naturally  and 
necessarily,  at  the  point  where  he  delivered  his  Gospel  to 
the  Galatians  :  his  purpose  is  only  to  show  that  up  to  that 
time  he  had  not  got  any  message  from  the  Apostles.  He 
must,  of  course,  assume  that  the  Galatians  will  believe  his 
statements  of  fact :  he  assures  them  with  the  most  solemn 
oath  that  he  speaks  the  truth.  Surely,  in  such  a  case,  he 
would  not  expose  himself  to  the  charge,  which  the  Judaistic 
emissaries  would  at  once  bring  against  him,  of  omitting  a 
vital  fact,  viz.,  concealing  a  visit  and  thus  incorrectly 
making  a  long  interval  between  the  two  which  he  ' 
mentions. 

Now,  on  the  North  Galatian  theory  that  limiting  point  is 
on  the  second  journey :  Paul  must  show  that  he  had  never 
received  any  message  from  the  Apostles  to  the  Gentiles  up 
to  that  time.     According  to  Luke  he  had  visited  Jerusalem 


Limits  and  Purpose  of  the  Autobiography,     303 

three  times  before  that  time.  Therefore,  if  Luke  is  trust- 
worthy, Paul  has  omitted  a  visit.  It  is  not  wonderful  that 
the  inference  should  be  drawn  by  many  scholars  that  Paul 
must  be  trusted  and  Luke  must  have  made  some  blunder. 
The  discrepancy  is  explained  away  by  the  orthodox 
theologians  through  a  very  elaborate  process  of  delicate 
reconciliation  ;  but  the  very  elaborateness  of  the  process  is 
a  proof  that  they  have  not  reached  the  ultimate  truth. 
Truth  is  simple.  A  scholar  and  a  historian  should  recognise 
that  universal  principle :  until  he  has  attained  perfect 
simplicity,  he  has  not  attained  truth,  and  should  struggle 
on  towards  it.  As  the  conclusion  of  that  elaborate  recon- 
ciliation, many  theological  scholars  deny  that  there  is  any 
discrepancy ;  but  the  plain  fact  that  very  many  other 
theologians — admittedly  reasonable,  learned,  and  bent  on 
seeking  truth — see  the  discrepancy,  is  a  proof  that  there  is 
one.  The  last  proof  of  reason  or  unreason  is  that  com- 
petent human  beings  agree  in  their  estimate.  If  a  large 
number  of  competent  witnesses  agree  that  there  is  a 
discrepancy,  it  is  vain  to  assert  that  there  is  none. 

With  his  usual  fairness  and  caution.  Dr.  Sanday  admits 
that  in  this  question  the  difficulties  "  are  no  doubt  great," 
but  in  the  same  breath  refuses  to  "  include  them  among 
the  serious  difficulties  "}  If  we  define  the  word  "  serious  " 
as  meaning  "  insuperable,"  I  am  quite  ready  to  accept 
the  distinction. 

The  result  is  that  on  the  North  Galatian  theory  there 
are  great  difficulties  in  reconciling  Acts  with  Paul ;  but  on 
the  South  Galatian  theory  these  difficulties  have  no  exist- 
ence.    As  in  the  Epistle,  so  in  Acts,  when  Paul  delivered 

*  Bampton  Lectures,  p.  329. 


304     Limits  and  Purpose  of  the  Autobiography. 

his  Gospel  to  the  Galatians  he  had  only  visited  Jerusalem 
twice  since  his  conversion.^ 

Thirdly,  in  this  autobiographical  sketch  Paul  relates  a 
notable  incident,  in  which  the  leading  older  Apostle,  when 
in  the  Gentile  sphere,  accepted  the  correction  and  rebuke 
of  Paul  on  the  question  of  the  relations  between  Jews  and 
Gentiles.  Not  merely  did  the  older  Apostles  fully  recognise 
that  the  Gentile  mission  belonged  to  Paul  and  Barnabas,  but 
also  they  submitted  to  learn  from  Paul  in  that  sphere. 

This  part  of  the  autobiography  constitutes  a  new  section, 
and  is  pointedly  distinguished  from  the  outline  of  Paul's 
movements,  and  we  shall  therefore  treat  it  under  a  special 
heading. 

XX 

ST.  PETER  IN  ANTIOCH. 

This  third  part  of  the  autobiography  is  marked  as  a  new 
departure.  The  second  part  began  at  his  conversion  as 
the  epoch  in  his  life — "but  when,"  ore  Se  euSoYT/o-ey,  I  15. 
The  third  part  now  resumes  in  the  same  way — "  but  when," 
oreSev^eeu,  II  II. 

While  the  second  part  is  necessarily  arranged  chrono- 
logically in  its  parts,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  third  part 
is  later  than  the  second.  The  third  part  begins  a  new 
thought  and  makes  a  new  departure,  and  its  chronological 
relation    to    the    second    must    be    determined    by    other 

^  On  the  theory  mentioned  on  p.  286  there  had  been  three  visits 
before  Paul's  first  missionary  journey,  but  Paul  mentions  here  the 
first  and  second  visits,  and  his  numbers  are  therefore  on  that  theory 
right,  though  he  interrupts  his  recital  before  reaching  the  visit  de- 
scribed in  Acts  XI  and  XII. 


S^.  Peter  in  Antioch.  305 

considerations.  Those  who  identify  the  second  visit  in 
the  Epistle  with  the  third  visit  in  Acts  are  perfectly 
justified  in  maintaining  (as  Prof,  Zahn  and  Mr.  Turner  are 
inclined  to  do)  that  Peter's  Antiochian  visit  took  place 
earlier  than  the  incident  described  in  II  i-io. 

It  is  possible  that  Peter  was  sent  to  Antioch  in  the 
interval  that  elapsed  between  Acts  XI  30  and  XIII  i. 
On  another  occasion  Peter  and  John  were  sent  to  inspect 
and  confirm  a  new  departure,  viz.,  the  extension  of  the 
Church  to  Samaria,  Acts  VIII  14.  Similarly,  it  would  be 
natural  that  Peter  should  be  sent  to  inspect  the  new  de- 
parture in  Antioch  shortly  after  the  events  in  Acts  XI  26. 

Whether  that  was  done  or  not  we  cannot  say  ;  but  Peter 
may  have  visited  Antioch  more  than  once  in  so  many 
years,  and  the  analysis  in  language  and  situation  show  that 
probably  the  visit  here  described  occurred  about  the  time 
of  Acts  XV  I .  The  reasons  are  set  forth  in  full  in  St. 
Paul  the  Traveller^  pp.  158  ff,  and  need  not  be  repeated 
here.  Nor  is  it  necessary  here  to  describe  the  incident. 
It  stands  quite  isolated,  and  few  historical  inferences  are 
clear  from  it.^ 

The  most  important  part  of  the  incident  is  Paul's  address 
to  Peter  II  14  ff  This  address  turns  into  a  general 
review  of  the  relation  between  Gentiles  and  Jews  in  the 
Church.  Gradually  Paul  diverges  from  the  situation  in 
Antioch,  and  at  last  finds  himself  in  the  Galatian  question  ; 
yet  it  is  impossible  to  mark  where  he  passes  away  from  the 
incident  in  Antioch.  But  the  address  is  practically  an 
epitome  of  the  theme  which  is  set  forth  in  the  following 
chapters;   and   the  commentary  on  them  is  at  the  same 


1  See,  e.g.,  §§  IV,  XXX. 
20 


3o6  Spirit  of  Chapters  III,  IV. 

time  an  explanation  of  the  address,  and  must  take  frequent 
notice  of  it.  After  working  through  the  rest  of  the  Epistle, 
one  turns  back  to  II  14  ff,  and  finds  in  those  verses  the 
whole  truth  in  embryo. 

XXI 
SPIRIT  OF  CHAPTERS  III,  IV. 

Paul's  aim  now  is  to  revivify  among  the  Galatians  the 
memory  of  their  first  condition,  before  any  contradictory 
and  confusing  messages  had  affected  them.  He  must 
touch  their  hearts,  and  make  them  feel  for  themselves  the 
Divine  word  in  their  own  souls.  He  reminds  them,  by 
many  subtle  touches,  of  their  original  experience,  how  the 
Divine  message  worked  in  them,  raised  them  to  a  higher 
nature,  made  them  instinct  with  Divine  life,  implanted 
marvellous  powers  in  them.  If  he  can  work  them  up  again 
into  that  frame  of  mind  in  which  he  had  left  them  fresh 
from  his  first  message,  his  immediate  purpose  will  be  gained. 
Thereafter,  other  steps  would  be  required.  But,  for  the 
moment,  he  must  work  on  their  nature  and  conscience  :  he 
must  appeal  to  their  true  selves  :  they  had  known  in  them- 
selves how  they  had  begun  by  simple  faith,  and  whither  it 
had  led  them.      Paul  knew  what  Goethe  knew  when  he 

said  : — 

O  !  never  yet  hath  mortal  drunk 
A  draught  restorative. 
That  welled  not  from  the  depths  of  his  own  soul  I 

How  utterly  out  of  place  in  effecting  this  purpose  would 
laborious  proofs  of  his  own  rectitude  and  consistency  be ! 
"  Timeserver "  is  he  ?  Think  of  the  marks  of  Christ,  his 
owner,  branded  on  his  body  !  ^     "  Preacher  of  the  Law  "  is 

1  See  below,  §  LXIII. 


Spirit  of  Chapters  III,  IV.  307 

he  ?  Then  he  is  false  to  his  own  message,  and  the  cross 
which  he  "  placarded  "  before  their  eyes  is  set  aside  by 
him  as  no  more  needed  !  But  they  know  from  their  own 
experience  what  has  made  them  Christians  !  If  he  has 
been  untrue  to  his  message,  he  is  accursed  ;  but  let  them 
hold  to  what  they  have  felt  and  known  ! 

The  letter  is  not  logically  argumentative.  It  is  merely 
futile  in  the  critic  to  look  in  it  for  reasoning  addressed  to 
the  intellect,  and  to  discuss  the  question  whether  it  is  or  is 
not  intellectually  convincing.  Each  new  paragraph,  each 
fresh  train  of  thought,  is  intended  to  quicken  and  reinvigorate 
the  early  Christian  experiences  of  his  readers.  Naturally, 
we  cannot  fully  appreciate  the  effect  of  every  paragraph. 
In  many  places  we  can  see  that  Paul  refers  to  facts  in 
the  past  relations  between  them  and  himself — facts  otherwise 
unknown  to  us,  and  guessed  only  from  the  brief,  pregnant 
words  which  he  here  uses,  words  full  of  reminiscence  to 
the  Galatians,  but  sadly  obscure  to  us.  In  other  paragraphs 
we  can  be  sure  he  is  referring  to  something  which  we  can 
hardly  even  guess  at. 

The  effect  of  the  letter  depended  to  a  great  degree  on 
circumstances  which  are  to  us  almost  or  quite  unknown. 
Here,  if  ever  in  this  world,  heart  speaks  to  heart :  the  man 
as  he  was  appeals  direct  to  the  men  as  they  were. 

If  feeling  does  not  prompt,  in  vain  you  strive ; 
If  from  the  soul  the  language  does  not  come 
By  its  own  impulse,  to  impel  the  hearts 
Of  hearers,  with  communicated  power, 
In  vain  you  strive.  .   .  . 

Never  hope  to  stir  the  hearts  of  men. 
And  mould  the  souls  of  many  into  one, 
By  words  which  come  not  native  from  the  heart. 

Thus  Paul  reiterates  his  blows,  and  heaps  appeal  on 


3o8  The  Address  '' Galatians^\ 

appeal  and  illustration  on  illustration,  all  for  the  one  sole 
end.  He  must  rekindle  the  flame  of  faith,  languishing 
for  the  moment,  under  misapprehension,  doubt  as  to  Paul's 
purpose,  doubt  as  to  his  character,  suspicion  as  to  the 
witness  and  work  of  the  other  Apostles.  If  the  flame  leaps 
up  fresh  and  strong  in  their  souls,  it  will  melt  all  suspicions 
and  solve  all  doubts.  They  will  once  more  know  the 
truth. 

Such  is  the  spirit  in  which  we  must  try  to  interpret 
chapters  III  and  IV.  I  cannot  do  it.  Probably  no  one 
will  ever  do  it  completely.  In  some  cases,  I  fancy,  I  can 
^  in  a  small  degree  catch  the  tone  in  'which  the  words  ought 
to  be  recited,  if  the  meaning  is  to  be  brought  out  of 
them  ;  and  by  the  hope  to  contribute  something  to  the 
understanding  of  this,  the  most  wonderful  and  enigmatical 
self-revelation  in  literature,  I  have  been  driven  to  publish 
these  pages  (many  of  which  have  been  written  long  ago, 
and  kept  back  from  consciousness  of  their  inadequacy). 


XXII 

THE  ADDRESS  "  GALATIANS,"  IN  III  i. 

The  opening  three  words  of  the  chapter,  "  O  foolish 
Galatians,"  have  in  Paul's  mouth,  if  I  estimate  him  and 
them  correctly,  a  strongly  pathetic  effect.  It  is,  I  think, 
customary  to  say  that  here  his  anger  speaks,  and  he  sharply 
censures  the  senseless  conduct  of  the  Galatians.^     The  most 

^  Scharfrilgcnder  Aiisdruck  is  Dr.  Zockler's  expression.  Lightfoot, 
in  his  edition,  p.  64,  evidently  reckons  this  apostrophe  among  those 
"  outbursts  of  indignant  remonstrance,"  by  which  "  the  argument  is 
interrupted  every  now  and  then.     Rebuke  may  prevail  where  reason 


The  Address  ^^  Gatatians" .  309 

curious  development  of  this  idea  is  seen  in  Deissman, 
Bibelstudien,  p.  263  ff.  After  the  harsh  and  angry  tone  of 
the  earlier  pages  of  the  letter,  according  to  Deissmann, 
Paul  concludes,  in  VI  11,  with  a  little  joke,  so  that  the 
Galatians,  "  his  dear  silly  children "  (liebe  unverstandige 
Kinder),  may  understand  that  his  anger  has  not  been 
lasting,  and  that  it  is  no  longer  the  severe  schoolmaster 
who  is  addressing  them  :  he  therefore  makes  the  jocular 
remark  about  "  big  letters,"  which  are  more  impressive  to 
children  than  the  smaller  letters  of  the  secretary  who  wrote 
most  of  the  Epistle  :  "  When  Paul  spoke  thus,  the  Gala- 
tians knew  that  the  last  traces  of  the  seriousness  of  the 
punishing  schoolmaster  had  vanished  from  his  features  !  " 

Not  anger,  but  pathos,  on  the  contrary,  seems  to  be  the 
prominent  note  in  this  apostrophe.  The  authoritative 
tone,  of  course,  is  there  ;  but  the  feeling  is  that  of  love, 
sorrow,  and  pathos,  not  anger. 

It  is  only  on  rare  occasions  that  Paul  addresses  his  hearers, 
as  in  this  case,  directly  by  the  general  appellation  that  em- 
braces them  all  and  sums  them  all  up  in  one  class. ^  But 
in  certain  states  of  emotion  the  necessity  comes  upon  him 
to  use  this  direct  appeal,  so  that  every  individual  shall  feel 
that  he  is  personally  addressed.  The  only  other  cases  in 
the  Epistles  of  Paul  are  2  Corinthians  VI  11,  and  Philip- 
pians  IV  15.     Let  us  compare  the  three. 

will  be  powerless."  That  the  tone  is  "severe"  (in  Lightfoot's  previous 
phrase)  is  quite  true ;  but  to  take  "  indignation  "  as  its  prominent 
note  seems  to  be  a  misreading  of  the  purpose  and  drift.  This 
misconception  is  one  of  the  many  wrong  consequences  of  the  North 
Galatian  view. 

^  The  need  for  a  comprehensive  address,  embracing  all  his  readers, 
and  placing  them  all  on  a  level,  is  illustrated  from  another  point  of 
view  in  §  LVI. 


3IO  The  Address  ''  Gaiatzans'\ 

To  show  the  tone  of  2  Corinthians  VI  11,  it  is  only- 
necessary  to  recall  the  intensely  emotional  words  {vv.  i-io) 
describing  Paul's  life  as  an  evangelist,  and  his  prayer  "  that 
ye  receive  not  the  grace  of  God  in  vain,"  and  then  to  read 
V.  II,  "  Our  mouth  is  open  unto  you,  O  Corinthians,  our 
heart  is  enlarged  ".  He  goes  on  to  address  them  as  his 
children.  But  though  he  is  censuring  them,  it  is  not  anger 
that  prompts  the  apostrophe ;  deep,  yearning  affection 
dictates  the  direct  personal  appeal. 

So  again  in  Philippians  IV  15.  Paul's  feelings  are 
deeply  moved  as  he  recalls  that  Philippi  was  the  one 
Church  which  sent  and  forced  on  him  money  for  his  pressing 
wants.  Here  again  the  apostrophe,  "  Philippians,"  follows 
upon  an  autobiographical  passage,  describing  how  "  I  can 
do  all  things  in  Him  that  strengtheneth  me  ". 

Thus  in  all  three  cases  we  notice  the  same  conditions 
leading  Paul  up  to  the  direct  address.  He  has  been  for  a 
time  putting  forward  prominently  his  own  work  and  the 
spirit  in  which  he  does  it.  Compare  the  words  of  Philippians 
just  quoted  with  Galatians  II  20,  "I  have  been  crucified 
with  Christ;  yet  I  live:  and  yet  no  longer  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me,"  etc.,  and  with  2  Corinthians  VI  9,  10,  "as 
dying,  and  behold  we  live  ;  as  chastened,  not  killed  ;  as 
poor,  yet  making  many  rich,"  etc.  Wrought  up  to  a  high 
pitch  of  emotion  in  this  retrospect  of  his  life  in  death  as  a 
servant  and  minister,  he  turns  direct  on  his  hearers,  and 
places  them  face  to  face  with  himself,  "  Galatians,"  or 
"  Philippians,"  or  "  Corinthians ".  The  man  who  reads 
anger  into  this  address  as  its  prominent  characteristic  is 
for  the  moment  losing  his  comprehension  of  Paul's  mind. 
Pathos  is  the  characteristic,  not  indignation. 

It   is  not  exactly    the  same    situation,  but   is   at  least 


The  Address  ^^  Galatians^'  311 

analogous,  when  Paul  directly  appeals  by  name  to  a  single 
correspondent.  This  he  only  does  in  i  Timothy  I  18,  VI 
20.  In  the  former  case  there  is  exactly  the  same  movement 
of  thought  and  emotion  as  in  the  three  cases  just  quoted. 
He  casts  a  glance  over  his  own  career  as  the  "  chief  of 
sinners,"  who  "  obtained  mercy,  that  in  me  might  Jesus 
Christ  show  forth  all  His  long-suffering,  for  an  ensample  of 
them  which  should  hereafter  believe  on  Him  unto  eternal 
life  ",  Here  we  find  the  same  idea,  life  gained  through  the 
Divine  patience  (though  the  idea  of  Paul's  personal  suffering 
and  affliction  is  not  made  so  prominent  here).  Then  he 
continues,  as  in  the  other  cases,  "  This  charge  I  commit 
unto  thee,  my  child  Timothy  ". 

Incidentally,  we  remark  here  that  no  one  who  trusts  to 
his  literary  sense,  could  attribute  this  passage  in  i  Timothy, 
with  its  deep  feeling,  to  a  forger,  who  put  on  the  mask  of 
Paul  in  order  to  gain  currency  for  his  theological  ideas. 
If  you  permit  your  feeling  for  literature  to  guide  you,  you 
know  that  the  friend  and  spiritual  father  of  Timothy  is 
speaking  to  him  in  these  words. 

The  other  passage  in  which  Paul  addresses  Timothy  by 
name,  VI  20,  is  different  in  type.  Towards  the  end  of  a 
long  series  of  instructions  to  Timothy  about  his  work, 
Paul  sums  up  earnestly,  "  O  Timothy,  guard  that  which  is 
committed  unto  thee  ".  Here  it  is  the  concluding  sentence  ; 
and  the  letter  ends,  as  it  began,  with  the  direct  address  to 
Timothy. 

But,  it  will  be  asked.  Was  Paul  not  expecting  too  much, 
when  he  thought  that  the  Galatians  would  understand 
these  delicate  shades  of  feeling,  which  escape  many  modern 
readers  ?  Are  we  not  trying  to  read  our  own  fancies  into 
the  Epistle?     I  think  not.     Paul  was  a  great  orator,  not 


312  The  Address  ''  Galatians". 

in  the  sense  of  elaborate  artistic  composition — as  to  which 

he  felt  with  Goethe,  who  makes  his  Faust  sneer  at  mere 

"  expression,   graceful    utterance "    (which    the    silly   pupil 

considered  "  the  first  and  best  acquirement  of  the  orator  "), 

because  they 

Are  unrefreshing  as  the  wind  that  whistles 

In  autumn  'mong  the  dry  and  wrinkled  leaves — 

but  in  the  sense  that  he  knew  exactly  what  he  could  count 
upon  in  his  audience.  He  swept  over  their  hearts  as  the 
musician  sweeps  over  the  strings  of  his  instrument,  knowing 
exactly  what  music  he  can  bring  from  them,  and  what  he 
must  not  attempt  with  them.  Let  us  read  the  letter  to 
the  Galatians  without  the  misconceptions  and  preconceived 
theories  which  lead  most  commentators  astray ;  and  let 
us  acquire  beforehand  some  idea  of  the  political  and  re- 
ligious situation,  and  the  character  of  the  Galatians.  Then 
the  meaning  will  strike  us  plainly  between  the  eyes,  and 
we  shall  no  longer  talk  of  anger  as  influencing  the  expression 
of  the  writer  (except  for  the  moment,  and  on  a  special  point, 
in  I  8  f ,  V  12),  You  never  understand  Paul's  motives  or 
purposes,  unless  you  take  them  on  the  highest  level  possible  : 
when  you  read  in  them  any  mixture  of  poorer  or  smaller 
feeling,  you  are  merely  misunderstanding  Paul  and  losing 
your  grasp  of  him.  But  they  who  talk  so  much  about  his 
indignation  in  Galatians  are  missing  the  real  emotion  that 
drives  him  on  :  it  is  intense  and  overpowering  love  and 
pity  for  specially  beloved  children. 

In  III  I,  then,  the  movement  of  feeling  in  the  writer's 
mind  forces  him  to  apostrophise  his  readers  in  one  general 
address.  But  by  what  appellation  could  he  sum  up  the 
whole  body  whom  he  addressed  in  Antioch,  Iconium,  Derbe 
and  Lystra?     There  was  only  one  name  common  to  them 


The  Address  '''' Galatians'\  313 

all.  They  all  belonged  to  the  Roman  province.  The 
Churches  addressed  had  already  been  summed  up  as  "  the 
Churches  of  Galatia  ".  The  one  title  common  to  the  hearers 
was  "  men  of  (the  province)  Galatia,"  i.e.,  Galatae. 

Here  we  find  ourselves  on  ground  that  has  been  disputed. 
Those  who  hold  the  North  Galatian  view  have  advanced 
three  separate  arguments  on  this  point,  and  each  demands 
a  short  consideration.  They  ask,  in  the  first  place,  what 
reason  there  was  why  Paul  should  have  sought  for  some 
common  appellation  for  the  people  of  the  four  cities  :  they 
say  that,  if  he  were  addressing  Antioch,  Iconium,  Derbe 
and  Lystra,  he  might  have  contented  himself  with  the 
superscription  (in  I  2),  as  he  does  in  many  other  letters. 
In  the  second  place,  they  say  (or,  at  least,  used  to  say)  that 
the  name  Galatia  was  not  applied  to  the  country  in  which 
these  four  cities  were  situated.  In  the  third  place,  even  if 
it  be  admitted  that  the  four  cities  were  in  Galatia,  they 
maintain  that  their  inhabitants  could  not  be  called  Galatae, 
for  none  who  were  not  Gauls  by  race  could  be  called 
Galatae. 

The  first  argument  has  already  been  answered,  when  we 
showed  how  the  march  of  emotion  brought  Paul  to  the 
point  where  he  must  apostrophise  his  audience ;  and  a 
further  answer  is  given  in  §  LVI.  The  whole  Epistle,  with 
its  intense  personality  and  directness,  demands  such  a 
direct  apostrophe. 

The  second  and  third  arguments  demand  separate  con- 
sideration. 


314  Galatia  the  Province. 

XXIII 

GALATIA  THE  PROVINCE. 

The  one  decisive  argument  that  Paul's  "  Galatia  "  must 
be  the  province,  and  not  simply  the  region  inhabited  by 
the  Gauls,  is  stated  by  Zahn.  Paul  never  uses  wide  geogra- 
phical names  except  those  of  Roman  provinces.  This  has 
been  stated  above,  §  XIV,  where  additional  arguments  are 
given  to  strengthen  Zahn's  observation :  ^  not  merely  did 
Paul  use  the  Roman  provincial  names,  but  he  even  used 
them  in  the  Latin  form,  transliterating  them  into  Greek, 
and  in  one  case  employing  a  Latin  form  which  was  avoided 
by  Greek  writers.  Paul  writes  as  a  Roman  and  a  citizen 
of  the  Empire. 

Here  we  note  that  Paul  is  much  more  Roman  in  his  tone 
than  the  Greek  Luke.  The  latter  never  uses  the  term 
"  Galatia,"  he  mentions  only  the  "  Galatic  territory  ".  Now, 
if  Paul  and  Luke  had  been  speaking  of  North  Galatia,  the 
country  of  the  three  Gallic  tribes,  it  is  impossible  to  under- 
stand why  they  should  differ  as  to  the  name.  Among  the 
immense  number  of  references  to  North  Galatia  made  by 
Greek  and  Latin  writers,^  there  seems  to  be  not  a  single 
case  where  any  other  name  than  Galatia  is  used  for  the 
country.  Why  should  Luke  alone  employ  everywhere  a 
different  name  for  the  country,  diverging  from  the  universal 
usage  of  Greek  and  Latin  writers,  and  also  from  his  master 
Paul  ?  No  possible  reason  can  be  given.  It  would  simply 
be  an  unintelligible  freak  of  Luke's  ;  he  chose  to  differ  from 
everybody,  because — he  chose  to  do  so. 

1  See  also  §  XXV. 

'^  Most  are  collected  in  Holder's  Altceltischer  Sprachschatz,  s.v. 
Galatia. 


Galatia  the  Province.  315 

But,  on  the  South  Galatian  view,  it  was  almost  unavoid- 
able that  he  should  differ  from  Paul  as  to  the  name  of  the 
country.  The  custom  of  naming  the  province  varied  ac- 
cording as  one  wrote  from  the  Roman  or  the  Greek  point 
of  view.  Now  it  has  been  shown  in  page  after  page  of  St. 
Paul  the  Traveller  that  Luke  follows  the  Greek  popular 
and  colloquial  usage,  as  it  was  current  among  the  more 
educated  half  of  society  in  the  cities  of  the  vEgean  land. 
So  far  as  evidence  goes,  that  class  of  persons  never  used 
"  Galatia"  to  denominate  the  Roman  Province;  only  persons 
who  consciously  and  intentionally  adopted  the  Roman 
imperial  point  of  view  did  so.  The  Greeks  generally  re- 
peated the  list  of  regions  comprised  in  the  Province  (or,  at 
least,  as  many  of  the  regions  as  served  their  immediate 
purpose),  thus:  "Galatia  {i.e..  North  Galatia),  Phrygia, 
Lycaonia,  Pisidia,  Isauria,  Pontus  Paphlagonia  : "  but  oc- 
casionally they  employed  an  expression  like  "  the  Galatic 
Eparchy".^  This  is  exactly  what  Luke  does.  Sometimes 
he  speaks  of  the  region  or  regions  with  which  he  is  con- 
cerned, Pisidia,  Phrygia,  Lycaonia  ^ ;  sometimes  he  employs 
the  expression,  "  the  Galatic  territory  ".^ 

Further,  take  into  consideration  that  the  adjective 
"  Galatic "  is  frequently  applied,  in  inscriptions  and  the 
geographical  writer  Ptolem\',  to  countries  like  Pontus  and 
Phrygia,  which  were  included  in  the  Province,  but  that  this 
adjective  is  never  used  in  a  geographical  way  to  designate 
by  a  circumlocution    North  Galatia ;  *   and  you    can  only 

1  C.  I.  G.,  3991,  A.D.  54.  The  custom  of  enumerating  parts  began 
before  80,  and  spread  to  other  Provinces  in  the  second  century. 

2  Acts  XIII  49,  XIV  6,  24.  =  Acts  XVI  6,  XVIII  23. 

■*  It  is  naturally  used  in  such  ways  as  tpya  TakatiKa,  deeds  like  those 
of  the  Galatae  ;  iroXis  FuXaTiKf],  a  Galatian  city  like  Ancyra. 


3i6  Galatia  the  Province. 

marvel  that  scholars  could  ever  conceal  the  facts  from 
themselves  so  far  as  to  think  that  Luke  meant  "  Galatic 
territory"  to  indicate  North  Galatia. 

A  modern  illustration  will  make  this  clearer.  An  Eng- 
lishman who  caught  the  words,  "  At  this  point  they  entered 
British  territory,"  would  at  once  understand  that  a  journey 
was  described,  not  in  Great  Britain,  but  in  Africa  or  Asia 
or  America.  A  German,  however,  unless  English  was  very 
well  and  accurately  known  to  him,  might  hesitate  as  to  the 
meaning.  So  a  Greek  of  Paul's  time  would  unhesitatingly 
understand  "  Galatic  territory "  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
inscriptions  and  Ptolemy  use  it.  A  modern  critic,  however, 
who  has  not  made  himself  familiar  with  the  ancient  usage 
in  such  matters,  often  mistakes  the  meaning. 

It  is  a  false  translation  on  the  part  of  the  North  Galatian 
theorists  to  tal^e  ^A'yKvpa^  t/"/?  Ta\aTtKri<i  in  Arrian,  Anab., 
II  4,  I,  as  "  Ancyra  of  Galatia":  it  is  "Galatic  Ancyra 
distinguished  from  Phrygiac  Ancyra  (Strabo,  p.  567)  ". 

In  truth,  nothing  except  the  obscurity  in  which  Asia 
Minor  was  enveloped,  combined  with  the  general  lack  of 
interest  taken  by  scholars  in  mere  geographical  matters — 
which  are  commonly  regarded  as  beneath  the  dignity  of 
true  scholarship — made  the  North  Galatian  view  ever  seem 
tenable.  And  now  it  stands  only  because  its  supporters 
among  "  the  great  scholars  "  of  Germany  will  not  look  into 
the  facts.  Their  minds  have  long  ago  been  made  up,  and 
there  is  so  much  to  do  in  other  directions  that  they  cannot 
reconsider  chosesjugces.  The  appearance  of  Professor  Zahn's 
Einleitung,  with  its  frank  acceptance  of  the  main  points  in 
the  South  Galatian  view,^  will,  as  we  may  hope,  produce  a 

^  In  origin  German  :  held  by  Weizsacker,  Holtzmann,  Clemen,  etc. 


Galatia  the  Province.  317 

change  in  Germany,  and  show  that  the  subject  cannot  be 
pushed  aside. 

The  great  difficulty  for  the  moment  is  that  the  North 
Galatian  theorists  have  committed  themselves  to  such 
sweeping  statements  in  geography  and  history,  in  order  to 
prove  the  South  Galatian  view  impossible,  that  they  have, 
as  it  were,  burned  their  boats  and  must  fight  to  the  last,  no 
longer  for  truth,  but  merely  for  victory :  es  ware  wenig 
ruhmlich,  wenn  die  Theologen,  welche  mit  ihren  Mitteln  in 
der  Geschichte  des  Urchristenthunts  und  der  alien  Kirche 
jahrzeknteiang  gearbeitet  haben,  ehe  Ramsay  seine  Mittel 
auf  dieselbe  Gegenstdnde  anwandte,  zu  allem  .  .  .  J  a  sagen 
wiirden.  Take  one  example,  which  is  typical  of  the  present 
situation.  Learning  that  many  inscriptions  designate  the 
Province  by  the  list  of  regions  composing  it,  a  distinguished 
German  professor  wrote  an  elaborate  article,  boldly  assert- 
ing that  the  name  Galatia  was  never  rightly  applied  to  the 
whole  Province,  and  therefore  drawing  the  inference,  as 
final  and  conclusive,  that  Paul  could  not  have  called 
Antioch,  Iconium,  etc.,  "Churches  of  Galatia".  Now  this 
was  a  real  danger  to  scholarship.  Many  English  theolo- 
gians are  accustomed  to  regard  that  distinguished  professor 
as  one  whom  "  no  one  would  accuse  of  error  in  a  field  which 
he  has  made  peculiarly  his  own  ",^  He  was  understood  by 
many  to  have  investigated  the  subject  with  the  true 
German  thoroughness  so  characteristic  of  him,  and  the 
paper  was  considered  by  many  as  closing  the  question  ;  if 
he  was  right,  there  was  no  more  to  say,  and  no  one  would 
even  think  of  attributing  error  to  him.     Yet  he  had  written 

1  I  quote  the  words  of  a  distinguished  English  professor  writing 
on  this  topic.  The  inerrancy  once  attributed  to  the  text  has  been 
transferred  by  him  to  the  German  commentators. 


3i8  Galatians  a7id  Gauls. 

that  bold  and  sweeping  negative  without  looking  into  the 
familiar  Roman  treatises  on  geography,  which  must  be  the 
foundation  of  all  reasoning  on  the  subject ;  and,  as  soon  as 
his  attention  was  called  to  Pliny  and  Ptolemy,  he  retracted 
the  assertion.  In  truth,  his  assertion  could  not  be  enter- 
tained for  a  moment ;  it  was  flatly  contradicted  by  the 
fundamental  authorities.  Had  any  English  scholar  made 
it,  what  scorn  would  have  been  poured  on  English  super- 
ficiality !  how  the  moral  would  have  been  drawn  that  he 
should  study  German  ! 

Even  after  the  German  professor  has  withdrawn  his 
statement  and  confessed  his  error,  and  other  prominent 
German  adherents  of  the  North  Galatian  theory  have 
frankly  acknowledged  that  Iconium,  etc.,  were  in  "  Galatia," 
some  English  theologians  continue  to  quote  the  original 
article  as  authoritative.^  If  that  is  the  case  after  the  article 
has  been  retracted,  what  would  be  the  case  if  no  one  had 
ventured  to  charge  its  author  with  error  ? 

XXIV 
GALATIANS  AND  GAULS. 

Many  modern  authors  have  committed  themselves  to 
another  equally  sweeping  negative — that  the  title  Galatae 
could  not  be  used  to  designate  the  people  of  Roman  Galatia 
(being  confined  to  those  who  had  the  blood-right  ^  to  it). 

^  See,  for  example,  the  paper  of  a  distinguished  Cambridge  scholar 
in  Classical  Review,  1894,  p.  396,  a  paper  never  retracted,  and  there- 
fore presumably  maintained  by  the  learned  author. 

^  Errarunt  qui  Galatas  Pauli  intellegi  voluerunt  Lycaonas,  quippe  qui  a 
Romanis  Galatice  provincicB  essent  attributi ;  neque  enim,  ut  mittam  alia, 
ea  re  ex  Lycaonibus  Galli  facti  erant  (Gal.  Ill  i),  says  one  of  the  most 
learned  and  scholarly  supporters  of  the  North  Galatian  view. 


Galatians  and  Gauls.  319 

Before  making  this  sweeping  assertion,  it  is  clear  that  the 
learned  writers  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  review  the  pas- 
sages mentioning  the  Galatae^  or  to  recall  the  facts. ^  No 
scholar  outside  the  North  Galatian  ranks,  would  even  ask 
for  proof  that,  when  the  Romans  called  a  Province  by  a 
definite  name,  they  summed  up  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Province  by  the  ethnic  derived  from  the  name  That  is  an 
axiom  from  which  all  historical  and  archaeological  students 
start.  It  was  necessary  in  the  administration  of  a  Province 
to  have  some  designation  for  the  whole  body  of  Provincials  : 
Afri,  all  the  people  of  Africa  Provincia,  whatever  their  race  ; 
Baetici,  of  Baetica  Hispania  ;  Asiani,  of  Asia  ;  and  Galatae, 
of  Galatia. 

A  single  case  is  sufficient.'^  Tacitus,  with  his  love  for 
varying  expression,  speaks  o{  dilectus per  Galatiarn  Cappado- 
ciamque  and  Galataruin  Cappadocumque  auxilia.  When 
this  was  quoted  as  an  example,  the  North  Galatian  champion 
replied  that  these  troops  were  obviously  recruited  among 
the  Gaulish  tribes  (as  the  most  warlike),  and  not  from  the 
Province  as  a  whole.  Once  more  he  spoke  without  investi- 
gating the  facts,  simply  inventing  reasons  to  prop  up  a 
theological  theory.  The  evidence  has  been  fully  collected 
and    tabulated   by  Mommsen,^  and   it   is    to  the  opposite 

^  See  Sections  8,  9,  12,  13. 

"^  Other  examples  are  given  in  Studia  Biblica,  IV,  p.  26  ff.  Dr. 
Zahn  says  that  the  discussion  there  given  handelt  hievun  ausfiihrlich 
und  iiberzeugend  (Einleituiig,  p.  130)  ;  and  Meyer-Sieffert  add  man  wird 
die  Moglichkeii  nicht  bestreiten  kunnen,  dass  er  einen  fiir  die  Gemeinden 
von  Antiochien,  Iconium,  Lystra  iind  Derbe  bestimmten  Brief  rals  tK- 
K\Tj<riais  TTji  TaXnTias  addressirem,  und  alien/alls  auch  dieselben  als  Galater 
anreden  konnte,  p.  8.  See  also  "Galatia"  in  Hastings'  Did.  of  the 
Bible. 

^Observat.  Epigraph.,  XXXVIII,  Militum  Provincialium  Patriae,  p. 
190  f  {Eph-  Epigr.,  vpj,  y.),  and  Hermes,  XIX  i  ff. 


320         SL  PauVs  Roman  Point  of  View. 

effect.  Recruits  were  drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  Province, 
and  (so  far  as  the  evidence  reaches)  in  larger  numbers  from 
the  parts  outside  of  North  Galatia  ;  there  were,  at  least, 
three  auxiliary  cohorts  styled  cohortes  P aphlagonum ,  but 
no  auxiliary  cohort  takes  its  name  from  the  North 
Galatians.^ 

The  details  of  this  argument  are  here  quoted  only  as  an 
example  of  the  straits  to  which  the  North  Galatian  theory 
reduces  its  defenders.  They  fall  into  error  after  error,  when 
they  try  to  support  their  theory  from  the  facts  of  Galatian 
history  or  antiquities. 

XXV 

ST.  PAUL'S  ROMAN   POINT  OF  VIEW. 

When  he  uses  the  terms  Galatia  and  Galatians,  Paul 
speaks  as  no  mere  Greek  spoke :  he  speaks  as  the  Roman. 
If  so,  we  must  look  to  find  this  view  ruling  both  in  this 
Epistle  and  through  his  whole  policy.  That  principle  I 
have  attempted  to  illustrate  throughout  St.  Paul  the 
Traveller.  He  was  at  once  Roman,  Greek,  and  Jew  :  in 
political  geography  the  Roman  speaks. 

Elsewhere,  I  hope  to  illustrate  the  principle  in  a  more 
special  way,  and  to  show  that  Paul's  career  cannot  be 
properly  understood,  unless  his  Roman  point  of  view  and 

1  In  the  names  of  auxiliary  cohorts,  words  like  Galatarum, 
Cilicum,  must  be  taken  in  the  sense  of  nation,  not  of  Province, 
according  to  Mommsen's  acute  distinction.  Auxiliary  cohorts  were 
in  theory  assumed  to  originate  from  foreign  nations  (as  in  truth  they 
once  did  originate),  not  from  Roman  Provinces  ;  and  they  bore  names 
national  and  non-Roman  after  they  were  recruited  entirely  from  th^ 
Provinces. 


Foolish  Galatians.  3  2 1 

his  imperial  statesmanship  is  fully  taken  into  account. 
Throughout  his  life  in  the  Provinces  and  in  Rome  "it  is 
not  the  mere  Jew  that  speaks  ;  it  is  the  educated  citizen  of 
the  Roman  world"  {St.  Paul  the  Trav,,  p.  149). 

The  use  of  Galatae  in  the  Roman  sense  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  term  ^iKi'KinqaioL.  The  commentators  on  Philip- 
pians  IV  15  do  not  observe  that  this  form  is  not  Greek, 
but  Latin.  It  is  the  Greek  representative  of  the  Latin 
Philippensis,  according  to  a  rule  familiar  to  archaeologists  : 
thus,  e.g.,  Mutinensis  becomes  MovTovv>]ato<i.  So  tho- 
roughly does  Paul  take  the  Roman  view  that  he  avoids  the 
Greek  ethnic,  which  was  ^iXiinrev^  or  ^tXcmri^vo^.  He 
would  not  address  the  inhabitants  of  a  Roman  colony  by  a 
Greek  name,  but  only  by  the  Latin  name  written  in  Greek 
form.     See  §  XIV. 

XXVI 

FOOLISH  GALATIANS. 

Now  that  we  have  fixed  the  precise  sense  of  the  word 
Galatians  as  "  men  of  the  Roman  Province  Galatia," 
and  therefore  pointedly  distinguished  from  "  men  of  the 
Lycaonian,  or  of  the  Phrygian  nation,"  the  question  is 
as  to  the  meaning  and  innuendo  of  the  address  "  foolish 
Galatians  ". 

F'irst,  perhaps,  one  must  notice  the  objection,  that  one 
ought  not  to  lay  too  much  stress  on  a  mere  name  in  an 
apostrophe  of  this  kind.  That  is  the  objection  of  one  who 
sits  in  a  study  and  comments  on  the  text,  not  of  one  who 
recognises  what  use  the  orator  or  the  preacher  can  make 
of  a  name.  The  very  rarity  and  unusualness  of  the  word 
"  Galatians  "  in  the  Pauline  sense,  the  very  fact  that  only 


32  2  Foolish  Galatians. 

Romans  or  persons  speaking  decidedly  and  pointedly  from 
the  Roman  point  of  view  employed  the  name  in  that  sense, 
made  it  a  word  that  arrested  the  attention  of  the  audience, 
conveyed  a  wealth  of  meaning  to  them,  and  placed  them 
at  a  certain  point  of  view. 

Let  those  who  do  not  feel  the  force  of  the  word 
"Galatae"  in  Paul's  mouth,  imagine  what  difference  it 
would  make  to  an  audience  in  this  country  whether  a 
speaker  used  the  word  "English"  or  "British"  as  an 
apostrophe:  it  might  make  all  the  difference  with  some 
audiences  between  the  success  or  failure  of  the  speech. 

The  force  of  the  name  that  Paul  uses  depends  on  the 
state  of  society  and  feeling  in  South  Galatia  at  the  time. 
The  contest  that  was  in  progress  there  has  been  described 
elsewhere.^  On  the  one  side  was  the  native  and  national 
spirit,  allied  with  the  power  of  the  priesthood  and  the  great 
temples — the  spirit  of  Orientalism,  of  stagnation,  of  con- 
tented and  happy  ignorance,  of  deep-rooted  superstition. 
On  the  other  side  was  the  desire  for  education,  the  percep- 
tion that  Greece  and  Rome  stood  on  a  higher  intellectual 
platform  than  the  native  religion  and  customs,  the  revolt 
from  the  ignorant  and  enslaving  native  superstition.  It 
has  been  pointed  out  that  the  influence  of  the  new  re- 
ligion of  Christ  was,  necessarily  and  inevitably,  on  the  side 
of  Graeco-Roman  education  and  order,  and  that  it  proved 
far  more  powerful  than  either  Greek  or  Roman  government 
in  spreading  the  use  of  the  Greek  language  (which  was  the 
chief  agent  in  Graeco-Roman  culture).  The  "men  of  the 
Province  Galatia  "  are,  therefore,  those  who  desire  educa- 
tion, who  have  shaken  off  the  benumbing  and  degrading 

1  See  Sections  12,  14,  23  ;  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  chapter  VI,  etc. 


Foolish  Galatians.  323 

influence  of  the  native  magic  and  superstition,  who  judge 
for  themselves  as  to  the  real  value  of  the  facts  of  life,  who 
lay  claim  to  insight  and  Noesis.  There  is  a  telling  innuendo 
in  the  juxtaposition  avorjTOL  TaXdraL,  "  you  who  are 
showing  yourselves  devoid  of  Noesis,"  "  Galatae  who  fail 
in  the  first  characteristic  of  Galatae  ". 

The  apostrophe  is,  in  short,  a  concentration  into  two 
words  of  the  sting  that  lies  in  the  whole  paragraph,  III  1-5. 
Your  present  conduct  is  irrational,  you  are  sinking  back  to 
the  old  level  of  superstition  and  ignorance  when  you 
think  to  attain  , perfection  by  the  flesh,  by  the  physical 
acts  and  works  of  man,  after  you  had  for  a  time  been  on 
the  higher  level  of  the  spiritual  life. 

Yet,  although  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  adjective  here 
used  is  indisputable,  and  is  universally  recognised  by 
ancient  writers  and  commentators,  the  North  Galatian 
theorists  try  to  read  into  it  an  allusion  to  the  fickleness  and 
changeableness  of  Celtic  and  French  peoples.  Thus  one 
of  the  greatest  of  them,  after  quoting  Jerome's  interpreta- 
tion— that  the  Galatians  are  here  called  fools  and  slow  of 
understanding — remarks  :  "  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say 
that  Jerome  here  misses  the  point  of  St.  Paul's  rebuke.  The 
Galatians  were  intellectually  quick  enough.  The  '  folly ' 
with  which  they  are  charged  arose  not  from  obtuseness  but 
from  fickleness  and  levity ;  the  very  versatility  of  their 
intellect  was  their  snare."  ^ 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  more  glaring  case  of  the 
distortion  of  a  naturally  sound  and  clear  judgment  by  a 
prepossession  in  favour  of  a  theological  theory.  First,  it  is 
assumed  that  the  Galatians  were  going  over  to  a  Judaistic 

^  Lightfoot,  p.  24^$  (tenth  edition). 


324  The   Two  Stages. 

form  of  Christianity  from  mere  natural  volatility  and  change- 
ableness  ;  and  then  this  Greek  adjective,  whose  real  force 
is  "senseless,"  "dully  stupid,"  is  declared  to  indicate  folly 
arising  from  fickleness  and  levity  and  versatility  of  intellect. 
Where  is  there  any,  even  the  slightest,  justification  for  elicit- 
ing such  an  innuendo  out  of  the  Greek  word  ai/oiyro?  ? 
Not  the  smallest  justification  exists  :  the  adjective  and  its 
cognate  words  have  a  diametrically  opposite  connotation  : 
they  denote  the  stupidity  that  arises,  not  from  versatility, 
but  from  deadness  and  impotence  of  intellect.  Or  is  there 
any  ground  for  charging  Paul  with  using  the  adjective  in  a 
sense  foreign  to  its  real  nature  ?  There  is  none  :  his  writing 
may  sometimes  be  open  to  blame  for  pressing  too  closely 
the  natural  sense  of  words,  but  never  for  blindness  to  their 
natural  sense.  To  charge  him  with  using  uvotjto^;  to  indi- 
cate the  folly  due  to  versatility  or  over-subtilty  or  levity 
of  intellect  is  to  abandon  all  hope  of  interpreting  him  as  a 
/ational  writer  of  Greek.  In  that  case  any  word  in  his 
writings  may  mean  anything.^ 


XXVII 
THE  TWO   STAGES    III   3. 

Are  you  so  devoid  of  rational  perception  of  the  real  value 
of  things,  so  wanting  in  insight  and  Noesis  ?  Having  begun 
in  the  Spirit,  are  ye  now  perfected  in  the  flesh  ? 

It  is  implied  that  the  Galatian  Christians  had  been  led 
astray  by  a  theory  of  lower  and  higher  stages  in  Christi- 
anity.     In   the   Mysteries   they  were  familiar   from    their 

^  Compare  §  VII. 


The   Two  Stages.  325 

pagan  days  with  this  idea  of  progress  through  an  inter- 
mediate to  a  higher  stage  of  rehgious  Hfe,  reaching  the 
perfect  knowledge  through  an  imperfect  knowledge.  They 
had,  in  perfect  honesty  but  in  utter  want  of  true  insight, 
been  led  to  the  idea  that  their  former  stage  of  Paulinism 
and  spiritual  religion  was  a  preliminary,  and  that  those  who 
were  strong  enough  should  proceed  to  the  hard  but  en- 
nobling stage  of  works,  of  troublesome  and  difficult  service 
with  their  body  and  their  flesh. 

This  idea  had  evidently  been  communicated  to  the 
Galatian  Churches  by  the  Judaising  emissaries.  That 
shows  that  these  emissaries  accepted  the  Apostolic  Decree, 
Acts  XV,  quite  as  much  as  Paul  himself  did,  but  read  it  in 
a  different  sense.  They  did  not  contend,  as  many  Jews 
previous  to  the  Council  and  the  Decree  had  contended, 
that  in  order  to  become  a  Christian  the  pagan  convert 
must  accept  the  Mosaic  Law:  they  did  not  say  "except 
ye  be  circumcised  after  the  manner  of  Moses,  ye  cannot  be 
saved"  (Acts  XV).  It  had  been  decided,  formally  and 
finally,  that  that  contention  was  wrong  and  wicked,  "  sub- 
verting the  souls "  of  the  pagan  converts  (Acts  XV  24), 
and  that  such  converts  could  be  received  into  the  Church 
without  doing  more  than  accept  the  four  necessary  con- 
ditions (Acts  XV  29). 

But  the  Decree  readily  lends  itself  to  a  quite  plausible 
interpretation  that  the  four  conditions  are  a  minimum,  a 
mere  concession  to  the  weakness  of  those  who  were  unfit 
to  bear  a  "  greater  burden " ;  and  that  those  who  had 
strength  to  bear  more  should  voluntarily  go  on  to  the 
perfect  stage  of  bearing  the  whole  burden. 

The  Galatian  Churches  were  honestly  convinced  that 
such  was  the  meaning  of  the  Decree  that  Paul  himself  had 


326  The  Marvellous  Powers. 

brought  them.  They  had,  in  the  next  place,  easily  been 
brought  to  regard  him  as  the  mere  subordinate  and  messen- 
ger of  the  Apostles,  and  especially  of  the  leaders  among 
them.  After  these  misconceptions  had  taken  root,  it  was 
easy  to  lead  on  the  Galatians  to  the  last  error — that  Paul 
from  jealousy  was  keeping  most  of  them  on  the  lower  stage, 
that  he  was  their  "  Enemy  "  when  he  told  them  to  neglect 
ceremonial  and  stand  fast  in  the  spiritual  stage, ^  while  he 
carried  on  only  some  special  favourites  like  Timothy  to  the 
perfect  stage  (Gal.  V  11). 

XXVIII 

THE  MARVELLOUS  POWERS,  III  2-5. 

The  ultimate  test  and  the  indubitable  proof  that  the  Divine 
power  had  been  working  through  Paul  among  the  Galatians 
from  the  beginning,  and  that  the  Spirit  had  been  given 
them,  lay  in  the  marvellous  powers  which  had  been  im- 
parted to  them,  and  which  they  had  exhibited   in  action. 

It  is  beyond  question  that  Paul  believed  not  merely  in 
the  superhuman  powers  which  he  himself  occasionally 
exerted,  but  also  in  the  communication  of  similar  powers 
to  many  of  his  converts.  He  appeals  to  the  memory  of 
the  Galatians.  They  know  that  such  powers  have  been 
exercised  among  them. 

Tell  me  then  (he  says),  you  who  received  the  Spirit,  does 
He  that  liberally  equips  you  with  the  Spirit  and  plants  in 

lit  is  clear  that  the  word  "enemy"  in  Gal.  IV  16  ought  to  be 
printed  in  inverted  commas  (if  one  follows  modern  methods  of  punctu- 
ation), as  being  the  very  word  which  was  being  used  in  Galatia  about 
him.  See  the  remarks  in  §  X,  XLIX,  carrying  out  Professor  Locke's 
idea. 


The  Marvellous  Powers.  327 

you  marvellous  and  extraordinary  powers — does  He,  I  say, 
do  so  because  of  the  deeds  of  the  Law  or  because  you  have 
been  the  listeners  and  disciples  to  the  preaching  of  the 
Faith  ?  I  do  not  need  to  supply  the  answer.  You  your- 
selves know  the  facts  (which  the  historian  has  not  failed  to 
record),  and  you  can  answer  the  question.  You  remember 
the  lame  man  at  Lystra,  who  had  the  faith  of  salvation  (as 
the  historian  says.  Acts  XIV  9);  you  remember  the 
disciples  at  Antioch  filled  with  joy  and  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  (Xni  52)  ;  you  remember  the  signs  and  wonders 
that  were  done  at  Iconium  (XIV  3),^  and  among  the  Gentiles 
in  general  (XV  12),  and  you  know  that  Barnabas  and  I 
could  do  such  works  only  where  there  was  in  you  "  the 
faith  of  being  saved  ";^  you  have  learned  in  your  own 
case  that  "  God  has  borne  you  witness,  giving  you  the 
Holy  Spirit  even  as  He  did  unto  us  Jews,  and  has  made 
no  distinction  between  us  and  you,  cleansing  your  hearts  by 
faith"  (XV  8,  9).  All  this  you  remember;  and  further, 
you  know  that  these  mighty  gifts  were  granted  you  before 
you  had  heard  of  this  new  Gospel  of  works  of  the  Law, 
and  when  you  knew  and  believed  in  only  the  Gospel  of 
Faith,  which  alone  had  been  preached  to  you  during  my 
earlier  visit. 

Are  you,  then,  so  void  of  insight  into  the  truth  of  actual 
facts  that,  after  having  received  such  powers  through  the 
faith  in  which  you  began,  you  now  seek  to  attain  a  more 
perfect  stage  of  Christian  life  through  physical  ceremonies 
and  acts  ?  Has  it  done  nothing  for  you  that  the  Spirit 
acted  so  powerfully  on  you  and  in  you  ?     Nothing,  do  I 

1  Assuming  that  this  verse  is  Lukan  :  but  see  St.  Paul  the,  Traveller, 
p.  108.     The  differences  of  text  in  the  Iconjan  episode  are  very  great, 
-  See  note,  p.  333. 


328  The   Teaching  of  Paul. 

say?  Perchance  it  has  actually  been  the  worse  for  you 
that  you  have  received  the  Spirit  and  then  fallen  away 
from  it. 

XXIX 

THE  TEACHING  OF  PAUL. 

In  the  following  sections  it  is  necessary  to  study  a 
number  of  sayings  and  arguments  in  the  Epistle  involving 
the  whole  theology  of  Paul.  Our  purpose  must  be  properly 
understood,  lest  it  be  thought  that  the  attempt  is  too  bold 
and  presumptuous.  The  aim  of  these  sections  is  not  to 
discuss  from  the  theological  or  the  philosophic  point  of  view 
the  real  meaning  and  nature  of  Paul's  doctrines.  Our  aim 
is  much  humbler.  It  is  simply  to  try  to  determine  what 
thoughts  and  feelings  and  memories  Paul's  words  roused 
in  the  Galatians,  what  meaning  his  teaching  had  had  for 
them.  Our  purpose  is  historical  ;  and  we  are  treating  a 
small  part,  yet  one  of  the  most  important  and  most  difficult 
parts,  of  the  general  problem,  What  did  Christianity 
accomplish  in  the  Roman  world  during  the  first  century  ? 

The  materials  for  forming  a  judgment  are  (i)  what  we 
know  about  the  character  and  the  religious  ideas  of  the 
peoples  of  Asia  Minor,  especially  in  the  districts  which 
had  been  least  affected  by  Greek  influence  and  were  most 
purely  native  :  ^  (2)  the  information  given  by  Luke  in  Acts, 
which,  however,  is  very  slight,  as  it  lay  quite  outside  of  his 
purpose  to  record  for  future  generations  a  picture  of  the 
character  and  mind  of  Paul's  converts  :  (3)  the  information 
given  by  Paul  himself  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.     In 

^  See  above  Sections  3-5,  9,  13, 


The  Message  to  the  Galatians.  2)^g 

Colossians  and  Ephesians  we  find  teaching  of  a  more 
advanced  character,  adapted  to  congregations  of  longer 
Christian  experience  and  of  more  rapid  and  advanced 
development ;  but  in  Galatians  the  intention  is  to  rouse 
afresh  the  emotions  and  sentiments  which  characterised  the 
Galatian  Churches  in  their  first  years,  to  appeal  from  their 
later  selves  to  their  earlier  selves.  Hence  Paul's  arguments 
here  have  to  a  certain  extent  the  character  of  reminiscences, 
for  they  are  designed  to  rouse  memories  among  his  readers. 

XXX 

THE  MESSAGE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 

Paul  had  set  before  the  Galatians  from  the  first  that  the 
spiritual  life  was  the  true  and  final  and  perfect  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  the  way  by  which  they  entered  this  spiritual 
life  was  explained  by  "setting  forth  openly  before  their 
eyes  Jesus  Christ  crucified  ".  This  brief  phrase  recalled  to 
them  many  memories.  We,  on  our  part,  cannot  fail  to  ask 
what  were  these  memories.  How  was  this  remarkable 
expression  made  intelligible  to  the  pagan  audiences  to 
whom  Paul  had  appealed  ?  Let  us  try  to  imagine  to  our- 
selves the  mind  of  such  pagans,  when  such  an  absolutely 
novel  form  of  words  was  first  presented  to  them  ;  in  what 
way  was  it  made  to  convey  a  distinct  idea  to  them  ?  We 
are  so  familiar  with  such  phrases  from  childhood,  that  we 
accept  them  as  full  of  meaning  and  power,  often  perhaps 
taking  them  on  credit  rather  than  really  understanding 
what  they  mean.  But  Paul  was  not  merely  e:tpressing  this 
idea  to  pagans  who  had  never  heard  it,  he  was  expressing 
it  for  the  first  time  in  the  world's  history  ;  he  had  stepped 


330  The  Message  to  the  Galatians. 

on  to  a  new  plane  in  the  development  of  thought,  beyond 
what  any  of  the  other  Apostles  had  reached  previously. 

It  was  certainly  not  by  skilful  philosophic  exposition  of 
an  abstruse  doctrine  that  Paul  expounded  his  idea  of  life 
gained  through  the  death  of  Christ.  Nowhere  else  does  he 
allude  so  plainly  and  pointedly  to  his  method  as  in  the 
sentences  that  form  the  transition  from  the  autobiographical 
retrospect,  which  occupies  most  of  chapter  II,  to  the  doctrinal 
exposition  of  chapter  III. 

Observe,  too,  with  what  art,  and  yet  how  naturally,  this 
reminiscence  of  his  method  is  introduced.  The  public 
address  to  Peter  before  the  whole  Antiochian  Church,  II 
14,  passes  by  imperceptible  stages  into  a  recital  of  his  own 
experience  in  his  conversion  and  the  beginning  of  his  new 
life.^  The  reader  begins  the  recital,  II  15,  with  the  idea 
that  Paul  is  relating  what  he  said  among  the  Antiochians. 
He  ends  it,  II  21,  feeling  that  Paul  has  drifted  away  from 
a  mere  narrative  of  the  Antiochian  crisis  into  the  memory 
of  that  crisis  in  his  own  life,  which  was  ever  present  to  his 
mind.  The  Galatians  recognised  in  the  recital  the  exact 
form  of  his  message  and  gospel  to  them  ;  they  saw  at  the 
same  time  that  it  was  the  message  spoken  in  Antioch  ;  and 
they  had  the  assurance  given  at  the  outset  of  the  letter 
that  the  whole  Antiochian  Church  joined  with  Paul  in 
writing  to  them,  and  endorsed  this  recital  as  a  statement 
of  the  gospel  which  they  also  had  heard. 

Much  of  the  effect  of  this  paragraph,  II  14-21,  depends 
on  the  place  whence  the  letter  was  written.  The  Church 
in  Syrian  Antioch  is  relating  to  the  Churches  in  Galatia 
what  Paul  always  had  preached  to  it  and  had  said  briefly 

I  See  §  XX. 


The  Message  to  the  Galatians.  331 

to  Peter.  Thus  it  was  impressed  on  the  Galatians  that 
Paul's  Gospel  was  everywhere  exactly  the  same,  always 
sufficient  in  itself  for  all  occasions,  powerful  even  in  face 
of  Peter,  absolutely  simple  and  perfectly  complete. 

No  one  can  really  understand  that  idea  except  him  in 
whom  it  has  been  made  part  of  his  life  ;  and  Paul  explained 
it  to  the  Galatians  by  looking  back  into  his  own  life  and 
speaking  out  of  his  own  heart.  As  usual,  we  come  again 
to  what  was  stated  above, ^  "  you  understand  nothing  in 
Paul  unless  you  take  it  in  its  relation  to  his  conversion  " ; 
"  on  our  conception  of  that  one  event  depends  our  whole 
view  of  Paul's  life  ".  It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  study 
fully  the  historical  and  biographical  aspect  of  the  problems 
connected  with  the  conversion ;  but  the  terms  in  which 
Paul  refers  to  it  here,  II  19,  20,  compel  us  to  try  to  realise 
the  manner  in  which  he  had  set  it  before  the  Galatians,  if 
we  want  to  get  any  clear  conception  of  the  effect  that  this 
and  the  following  paragraphs  produced  on  them. 

The  idea  had  come  to  Paul  through  revelation,  i.e.,  through 
direct  intercourse  of  man  with  the  Divine  nature.  In  such 
intercourse  there  is  involved  not  merely  the  willingness  of 
the  Divine  nature  to  manifest  itself  (for  that  condition 
always  exists),  but  also  willingness  and  fitness  of  the  man 
to  become  sensitive  to  the  manifestation — a  certain  state  of 
the  mind  and  of  the  body  is  needed.  The  required  con- 
ditions existed  in  Paul  on  several  occasions  ;  and  it  is  in 
every  case  interesting  to  observe  them  so  far  as  we  can. 

It  is  evident  in  these  words  o{  v.  19,  "  I  through  law  died 
to  law,"  that  Paul  had  been  originally  a  man  profoundly 
convinced  of  sin,  and  eager  to  escape  from  it  by  zealous 
obedience  to  the  Law.      With  that  strong  consciousness 

*  See  p.  27^, 


332  The  Message  to  the  Galatians. 

ever  present  in  his  mind,  he  was  travelhng  to  Damascus, 
bent  on  annihilating  the  effect  produced  by  that  Impostor, 
who  had  outraged  the  Law,  and  rightly  had  suffered  death 
as  the  due  penalty,  but  had  left  behind  Him  some  mis- 
guided followers,  who  continued  to  outrage  the  Law.  As 
he  came  along  "  the  way  of  the  sea,"  and  reached  the  crest 
of  the  very  gentle  elevation  which  bounds  the  plain  of 
Damascus  on  the  south,^  the  view  of  the  scene  of  his  coming 
work  produced  naturally  a  strong  effect  on  his  highly 
strung  and  susceptible  temperament.  The  long  journey, 
day  after  day,  with  nothing  to  do  except  to  count  the  miles 
that  still  divided  him  from  his  goal  and  to  think  of  the 
work  that  lay  before  him,  inevitably  produced  an  intense 
concentration  of  purpose,  which  gave  the  mind  supreme 
sovereignty  over  the  body.  This  effect  was  accentuated 
by  the  spare  diet,  inevitable  in  Eastern  travel — diet  suffi- 
cient to  keep  the  mind  alert  and  the  body  in  health,  but 
not  sufficient  to  enable  "this  muddy  vesture  of  decay"  to 
"  grossly  close  in  "  the  soul  and  screen  it  more  effectually 
from  perceiving  the  spiritual  world  by  which  we  are  always,. 
but  generally  unconsciously,  surrounded — ^just  sufficient  to 
produce  an  exaltation  and  stimulation  of  the  faculties, 
which  is  as  far  removed  from  the  unhealthy  and  morbid 
excitation  induced  by  extreme  over-fatigue,  or  by  unnatural 
starvation  and  fasting,  as  it  is  from  the  dulled  and  contented 
state  that  results  from  a  full  and  generous  diet. 

^  I  follow  the  old  tradition  as  to  the  locality — a  tradition  which 
commended  itself  to  the  judgment  of  Sir  Charles  Wilson,  and  which 
seems  to  me  to  have  every  appearance  of  truth  and  unbroken  con- 
tinuance. The  situation,  however,  at  Kaukab,  near  ten  or  twelve 
miles  from  Damascus,  was  found  to  be  very  inconvenient  for  pilgrims ; 
and  the  Latins  therefore  moved  the  site  in  modern  times  to  a  spot 
close  to  the  city,  and  on  the  east  side  of  it,  not  on  the  south  I 


The  Message  to  the  Galatians.  333 

Few,  if  any,  persons  can  have  much  experience  of  travel 
in  such  circumstances,  with  the  sun  watching  them  day 
after  day  in  pitiless  and  unvarying  calmness  from  its  rising 
to  its  setting,  without  having  their  nature  deeply  affected, 
and  even  passing  permanently  into  a  new  life  and  temper. 
But  in  a  nature  which  was  already  so  sensitive  to  the 
Divine  world  around  it  as  Paul's,  all  the  conditions  were 
fulfilled  which  raised  him  above  the  ordinary  limitations  of 
humanity.  It  was  a  supreme  crisis  in  his  life,  like  that  in 
the  hall  of  the  proconsul  at  Paphos,  like  that  when  he 
perceived  the  "  faith  of  being  saved  "  ^  which  looked  through 
the  eyes  of  the  lame  man  at  Lystra.  In  the  bright  light 
that  shone  about  him,  he  saw  and  heard  what  none  of 
his  travelling  companions  could  see  or  hear.  He  saw  as 
a  living,  Divine  reality  Him  whom  he  had  believed  to  be 
a  dead  Impostor.  Paul's  whole  theory  of  life  had  been 
founded  on  the  belief  that  Jesus  was  dead  ;  but  when  he 
recognised  that  Jesus  was  living,  the  theory  crumbled  into 
dust.  If  He  was  not  dead,  He  was  not  an  Impostor.  He 
had  suffered  the  last  penalty  of  the  Law.  He  had 
submitted  to  the  curse  pronounced  on  "  every  one  that 
hangeth  on  a  tree"  (Gal.  Ill  13)  ;  but  yet  He  was  not 
accursed,  but  living  and  glorified.  The  Law,  by  being 
satisfied,  had  no  longer  any  effect  upon  Him :  it  had 
ceased  to  exist  for  Him  when  He  through  its  operation 
died  to  it. 

Vividly  and  deeply  conscious  that  he  was  a  sinner 
before  the  Law,  Paul  accepted  the  full  penalty  of  his  sin : 
through  the  operation  of  the  Law,  he  died  to  it:  he  re- 

'^■nivrw  Tov  a-wdrji/ai,  an  untranslatable  expression.  It  indicates 
that  state  of  the  will  and  temperament  which  made  a  person  capable 
of  being  cured  or  saved,  able  to  respond  to  the  word  of  Paul. 


334  1^^^  Message  to  the  Galatians. 

ceived  the  curse  upon  him,  taking  to  him  the  crucifixion 
of  Christ.  By  so  doing  he  ceased  to  exist  for  the  Law, 
and  the  Law  no  longer  existed  for  him  :  he  entered  on  a 
new  Hfe.  But  this  new  Hfe  became  his  only  through  his 
belief  in  Jesus  as  the  living  God :  the  rest  of  his  life  was 
given  him  through  his  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  whose 
voluntary  death  had  opened  to  Paul  this  new  life  free 
from  the  terrors  of  the  Law  and  the  ever-present  fear  of 
death.  Had  it  been  possible  to  attain  through  the  Law 
this  new  life,  this  life  free  from  the  curse  pronounced  by 
the  Law  against  every  one  who  failed  to  walk  in  it  (Gal. 
Ill  lo),  Christ's  death  would  have  been  useless.  Paul 
had  found  for  himself  that  the  new  life  could  not  be 
attained  by  striving  to  obey  the  Law  ;  he  knew  that  no- 
thing could  give  it  except  the  perfect  and  soul-possessing 
recognition  that  Christ  had  died  voluntarily  to  show  the 
way,  and  yet  was  still  living. 

The  power  which  Paul's  Gospel  had  over  the  Galatians 
lay  in  its  origin  out  of  his  own  experience.  He  was  the 
living  proof  that  it  was  true.  It  had  given  him  his  new 
life.     What  it  did  for  him  it  could  do  for  all. 

Therein  lay  the  sufficient  answer  to  the  mere  abstract 
philosophical  objection  :  how  can  the  death  of  one  man 
gain  pardon  for  the  sins  of  another?  In  reply  Paul 
narrated  the  facts.  That  shame  and  curse  of  the  Crucifixion 
he  had  embraced  as  his  own  ;  he  had  grasped  it  and  taken 
it  into  his  own  soul ;  he  had  made  it  the  deepest  part  of  his 
own  nature ;  he  had  founded  his  entire  consciousness  and 
his  entire  mind  upon  it.  It  remade  the  universe  for  him  ; 
it  recreated  his  life  and  soul  and  thought  and  energy ;  the 
simple  fact  that  he  stood  and  spoke  before  them  was  the 
unanswerable  proof  that  his  message  was  true. 


The  Message  to  the  Galatians.  335 

We  may  ask,  what  evidence  was  there  that  what  Paul 
said  was  true  ?  What  evidence  was  there  that  he  was 
not  deceiving  himself,  mistaking  the  visions  of  epileptic 
insanity  (as  some  of  my  medical  friends  call  them)  for 
reality  and  truth  ?  Such  questions  we  may  now  ask,  just 
as  now  we  may,  some  of  us,  doubt  whether  he  spoke  the 
whole  truth  in  that  autobiographical  sketch,  Ch.  I,  II,  to 
the  Galatians,  whether  he  did  not  pass  lightly  over  some 
inconvenient  facts,  such  as  his  solemn  public  appeal  to 
the  Apostolic  Council  and  the  message  from  the  Council 
which  he  carried  to  the  Galatians.  But  no  one  that  saw 
him  could  ask  those  questions.  No  one  that  heard  his 
voice  and  looked  into  his  eyes  could  doubt  that  he  spoke 
the  truth.  Therein  lay  his  power  over  men.  They  could 
not  but  believe  him.  The  Galatians  knew  that  he  spoke 
the  truth. 

And  now  at  the  present  day  I  put  the  question,  is  it 
possible  for  us,  if  we  reason  straight  and  fairly,  to  believe 
that  Paul  could  have  acquired  that  power,  could  have  so 
possessed  his  hearers  with  the  absolute  conviction  that  he 
spoke  the  truth  about  his  experiences,  in  any  other  way 
except  by  speaking  the  truth?  To  speak  to  the  hearts  of 
others  you  must  speak  straight  out  of  your  own  heart. 
Paul  as  an  impostor,  or  even  as  an  unconscious  deceiver, 
is  an  unintelligible  and  irrational  figment  :  to  be  conceiv- 
able he  must  be  taken  as  absolutely  true. 

But  Paul  had  declared  in  Syrian  Antioch,  and  it  was 
involved  in  the  truth  of  his  message,  that  the  Law  ceased 
to  have  any  power  over  him,  when  he  accepted  the  penalty 
and  the  shame,  and  died  to  the  Law.  If,  therefore,  he 
should  "build  up  again  those  things  which  he  had 
destroyed"  (Gal.  II   18),  if  he  should  begin  once  more  to 


336  The  Message  to  the  Galatians. 

recognise  the  Law  as  existing  for  him,  he  would  "prove 
himself  a  transgressor,"  he  would  sacrifice  the  justifying 
effect  of  his  belief  in  Jesus,  he  would  be  bringing  himself 
back  into  the  former  condition  of  vivid,  intense  conscious- 
ness of  sin  and  inability  to  escape  from  the  penalty,  he 
would  "make  void  the  grace  of  God  "  (II  21),  he  would  be 
experiencing  in  vain  the  Divine  power  (1 1 1  4).  If  he  made 
the  Law  a  power  over  him,  Christ  would  profit  him 
nothing  (V  2). 

The  Law  had  produced  in  him  that  intense  and  over- 
powering consciousness  of  guilt  and  sin,  which  was  a 
necessary  stage  in  the  way  of  salvation.  But  by  satisfying 
it,  he  annihilated  it  as  a  power  over  himself 

Those  who  would  be  saved  must  go  through  the  same 
process  :  first  the  intense  consciousness  of  sin  ;  then  the 
actual  experience  how  belief  in  Christ  enabled  them  to  die 
with  Him  to  the  Law,  and  enter  on  the  new  life,  which 
thus  was  opened  to  them.  How  irrational — and  worse  than 
irrational — it  was  thereafter  to  restore  for  themselves  the 
power  which  the  Law  exerted  over  all  who  were  under 
it,  suffering  the  hopeless  consciousness  of  guilt  which  it 
produced.  Their  experience  of  the  Spirit  would  be  vain 
and  useless  to  them,  it  would  perhaps  be  a  positive  dis- 
advantage to  them,  if  they  now  began  to  build  up  again 
what  they  had  destroyed  (Gal.  II  4).  "If  ye  receive 
circumcision,  Christ  will  profit  you  nothing  "  (V  2),  "  Christ 
died  for  naught"  (I  21). 


Sons  of  Abraham.  2iV7 

XXXI 

SONS  OF  ABRAHAM,  III  6-9. 

As  Abraham's  faith  in  God  was  counted  to  him  for 
righteousness,  so  your  faith  in  Jesus  was  counted  to  you. 
You  know,  then,  that  they  who  cleave  to  the  rule  of  Faith, 
inherit  Abraham's  Faith,  and  are  his  sons  (for  he  that 
inherits  is  a  son). 

The  idea  that  they  who  follow  the  principle,  of  Faith  are 
sons  of  Abraham,  whatever  family  they  belonged  to  by 
nature,  would  certainly  be  understood  by  the  Galatians  as 
referring  to  the  legal  process  called  Adoption,  vlodea-la. 

Now  there  were  at  that  time  in  the  Roman  Empire  two 
kinds  of  Adoption,  and  two  kinds  of  law  regulating  it : 
there  was  Adoption  of  the  Greek  type  and  Adoption  of  the 
Roman  type.  In  their  origin  these  two  types  had  been 
so  similar  that,  for  our  present  purposes,  they  might  be 
treated  as  one.  Adoption  had  been  a  process  devised  to 
supply  the  want  of  a  son  and  heir  in  the  course  of  nature : 
a  man  that  had  no  natural  son  might  adopt  a  son,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  family  from  coming  to  an  end  (which 
would  entail  the  annihilation  of  the  family-cultus).  Adop- 
tion was  at  the  same  time  a  kind  of  embryo  Will :  the 
adopted  son  became  the  owner  of  the  property,  and  the 
property  could  pass  to  a  person  that  was  naturally  outside 
of  the  family  only  through  his  being  adopted.  The  Adoption 
was  a  sort  of  Will-making  ;  and  this  ancient  form  of  Will 
was  irrevocable  and  public. 

Such  had  been  the  original  sense  of  the  process  of 
Adoption.  In  Greek  law  there  had  been  no  serious 
change  in  its  character.     But  in   Roman  law  it  had  de- 


338  Sons  of  Abraham. 

veloped  considerably  from  its  primitive  form,  and  the 
idea  of  inheritance  or  heirship  had  become  dissociated  from 
the  idea  of  sonship  :  a  man  might  be  adopted  without  any 
intention  of  making  him  an  heir,  and  property  might  be  left 
to  a  person  outside  of  the  family  ^  without  adopting  him. 

Now  Paul  here  assumes  that  all  they  who  inherit  that 
special  property  of  Abraham,  viz..  Faith,  must  be  sons  of 
Abraham,  i.e.,  that  none  but  a  son  can  inherit,  and  that  the 
terms  "Son"  and  "Heir"  are  interchangeable.  He  as- 
sumes also  that  his  readers  are  familiar  with  that  principle 
and  custom.  Obviously,  that  principle  suits  Greek  law 
much  better  than  Roman  law  as  it  was  in  the  centuries 
immediately  before  or  after  Christ.  The  question  then 
arises :  Can  we  understand  that  Paul  is  here  thinking  of 
the  Roman  Adoption,  or  must  we  conclude  that  he  is 
speaking  with  reference  to  the  Greek  Adoption  ? 

Dr.  W.  E.  Ball,^  in  a  highly  suggestive  paper  on  the 
influence  of  Roman  ideas  on  the  theology  and  language  of 
Paul,  assumes,  without  thinking  of  any  other  possibility, 
that  the  Apostle  is  here  thinking  of  Roman  law ;  and 
Halmel  has  attempted  to  prove  that  in  his  book  das 
romische  Recht  im  Galaterbrief,  Essen,  1895.^ 

Mitteis,*  apropos  of  a  passage  in  the  fifth  century  Syrian- 
Roman    Lawbook,   in   which    the   interchangeableness   of 

^  Adoptioper  testamentum,  which  is  mentioned  by  Roman  historians, 
seems  to  have  been  a  political  device,  and  not  customary  in  private 
life  :  so  says  Mitteis  Reichsrecht  und  Volksrecht,  p.  340,  who  adds  that 
it  is  never  mentioned  in  juristic  sources. 

^  In  the  Contemporary  Review,  Aug.,  1891,  p.  278  ff. 

^  On  it  see  the  quotation  from  Mitteis  in  our  preface. 

*  Mitteis,  Reichsrecht  und  Volksrecht,  p.  339  ff.  The  Lawbook  is 
published  in  Syriac  and  German  by  Bruns  and  Sachau  ein  rOmisch- 
syrisches  Rechtsbuch  des  fiinften  Jahrhunderts. 


Sons  of  Abraham.  339 

"Son"  and  "Heir"  is  assumed,  has  discussed  the  same 
question  which  meets  us  here,  and  has  decided  it  on 
grounds  which  are  perfectly  applicable  here,  though, 
naturally,  he  does  not  notice  the  parallel  case  in  Paul's 
letter.  In  several  places  his  argument  might  almost  be 
taken  as  a  reply  to  Dr.  W.  E.  Ball's  paper,  though  in  all 
probability  he  never  saw  it.  We  simply  transfer  his  argu- 
ment to  our  pages,  changing  names,  slightly  modifying 
and  greatly  shortening  it. 

It  is  evidently  impossible  that  Paul  should  use,  or  the 
Galatians  understand,  any  references  to  the  Roman  law  of 
Adoption  in  its  original  and  primitive  form  ;  they  could 
know  only  the  developed  form  of  that  law  as  it  was 
customary  in  ordinary  life,  in  which  the  last  shred  of 
connection  between  sonship  and  heirship  had  disappeared. 
Nor  is  it  an  allowable  supposition  that  this  form  of 
expression  had  persisted  in  language  after  it  had  ceased  to 
exist  in  law.  Such  survivals,  indeed,  are  possible,  but  in 
every  case  they  must  be  proved  by  examples  :  now  not  a 
trace  is  known  in  Roman  literature  or  monuments  of  such 
interchangeableness  of  the  terms. 

On  the  other  hand  the  equivalence  of  sonship  and  heir- 
ship is  familiar  in  Greek  literature.  The  proofs  are  given 
in  every  hand-book  and  in  every  dictionary  of  Greek 
antiquities.^ 

In  the  Greek  view  it  was  a  calamity  both  to  the  individual 
and  to  the  State,  if  a  citizen  died  without  leaving  an  heir  to 
carry  on  the  family  and  continue  the  family  religion  :  the 
State,  which  was  an  association  of  families,  lost  one  of  its 
members,  the  gods  of  the  family  lost  their  woiship,  and  the 

1  See  e.g.,  Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  Antiquites  Gr.  et 
Rom.  s.v.  Adoptio. 


340  Sons  of  Abi^aham. 

dead  citizen  lost  the  rights  and  gifts  which  he  was  entitled 
to  receive  from  the  surviving  family.  The  State,  therefore, 
looked  after  the  continuance  of  the  family,  if  the  individual 
citizen  had  neglected  his  duty.  The  only  way  in  which  a 
childless  individual  could  acquire  an  heir  was  by  adopting 
him  :  hence  to  adopt,  ela-iroteladai,  and  to  bequeath,  Biari- 
decrdai,  are  used  as  equivalent  terms  :  childless  (aTrat?)  and 
intestate  are  practically  the  same  idea.  In  Roman  law 
adoption  imitated  nature,  and  the  adopted  son  was  assimi- 
lated as  much  as  possible  to  the  son  by  birth.  In  Athens, 
in  order  to  keep  the  property  in  the  family,  the  adopted 
son  was  permitted  and  encouraged  to  marry  the  daughter 
of  the  deceased,  thus  saving  the  dowry  which  she  would 
otherwise  require. 

In  Asiatic  countries,  where  some  traces  of  succession  in 
the  female  line  persisted,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  same 
marriage  custom  prevailed,  on  the  theory  that  the  adopted 
son  acquired  the  right  of  the  daughter  to  inherit  by  marry- 
ing her.  In  those  countries  this  was  not  felt  to  make  any 
difference  between  the  position  of  the  son  by  nature  and 
the  son  by  adoption,  for  apparently  both  kinds  of  sons,  ac- 
cording to  the  primitive  religious  law,  acquired  right  of 
inheritance  by  marrying  the  heiress,  their  sister  by  nature 
or  by  adoption.  The  spread  of  Greek  customs  tended  to 
discourage  marriage  between  natural  brother  and  sister, 
except  in  cases  where  something  peculiarly  sacred,  such  as 
the  right  to  the  throne,  was  concerned.  How  far  the 
Athenian  custom  of  marrying  the  adopted  son  to  the 
heiress  was  a  survival  of  a  similar  ancient  social  custom 
we  need  not  here  inquire. 

It  is  true  that  most  of  the  evidence  ordinarily  quoted  to 
prove  this  Greek  idea  of  the  equivalence  of  sonship  and 


Sons  of  Abraham.  341 

heirship  is  distinctly  older  than  the  time  of  Paul  ;  but  there 
is  also  later  evidence.  In  fact  the  passage  of  the  Roman- 
Syrian  Lawbook  of  the  fifth  century  on  which  Mitteis  (/.  ^.) 
comments  is  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  the  forms 
of  language  in  Graico- Asiatic  states  continued  long  after 
Paul's  time  to  follow  the  ancient  Greek  expression  that 
the  heir  is  the  son,  that  the  family  of  the  deceased  lives  on 
in  the  heirs,  that  heir  and  son  are  interchangeable  terms, 
that  "  to  make  a  will  "  means  "  to  adopt  a  son  ". 

Paul,  therefore,  is  using  the  ordinary  Greek  forms.  He 
is  speaking  of  a  religious  inheritance  ;  and  it  was  specially 
and  fundamentally  on  religious  grounds  that  the  Greek 
heir  and  son  was  adopted  to  continue  the  family  cultus. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  Rome,  such  a  proverb  as  hereditas 
sine  sacris,  "  an  inheritance  unencumbered  by  any  religious 
duties,"  indicating  a  piece  of  unmixed  good-luck — a  proverb 
current  as  early  as  the  third  century  B.C. — shows  how  early 
heirship  and  religious  succession  might  be  divorced  in 
Roman  practice. 

Paul's  thought  is  this :  the  adopted  heir  succeeds  to  the 
religious  obligations  and  position  of  the  deceased.  Con- 
versely, he  who  succeeds  to  the  religious  position  of  any 
man  is  his  son  :  there  was  no  other  form  under  which 
succession  could  be  made,  except  through  adoption.  He 
who  succeeds  to  the  faith  of  Abraham  is  the  son  of  Abraham. 
He  could  not  acquire  possession  of  Abraham's  faith  in  any 
other  way  than  as  his  son.  "Ye  know  therefore  that  they 
which  be  of  faith,  the  same  are  sons  of  Abraham." 

Among  the  Jews,  adoption  had  no  importance,  and  hardly 
any  existence.  The  perpetuity  of  the  family,  when  a  man 
died  childless,  was  secured  in  another  way,  viz.,  the  levii^ate. 
Only  sons  by  blood  were  esteemed  in  the  Hebrew  view  : 


342  Sons  of  Abrahani. 

only  such  sons  could  carry  on  the  true  succession,  and  be 
in  a  true  sense  heirs.  From  every  point  of  view  the  thought 
in  III  7  is  abhorrent  to  Hebrew  feeling.  It  is  one  of  the 
passages  which  show  how  far  removed  Paul  was  from  the 
mere  Jewish  way  of  thinking  ;  he  differed  in  the  theory  of 
life,  and  not  merely  in  the  religious  view.  Quite  apart 
from  the  fact  that  the  Jews  naturally  abhorred  the  idea 
that  the  Gentiles  could  become  sons  of  Abraham,  the  very 
thought  that  the  possessing  of  a  man's  property  implied 
sonship  was  unnatural  to  them.  Paul  had  grown  up  amid 
the  surroundings  and  law  of  Gra^co-Roman  society  ;  other- 
wise the  expression  of  III  7  could  not  come  so  lightly  and 
easily  from  him. 

Such  passages  as  this  have  led  some  very  learned  Jewish 
scholars  of  my  acquaintance,  whose  names  I  may  not  quote, 
to  declare  in  conversation  their  conviction  that  the  letters 
attributed  to  Paul  were  all  forgeries,  because  no  Jew  of  that 
age  could  write  like  that,  whether  he  were  Christian  or  no. 
So  far  as  I  may  judge,  they  undervalue  the  cosmopolitan 
effect  produced  on  the  Jewish-Roman  and  Greek  citizens 
living  for  generations  in  Greek  and  Roman  cities,  just  as 
much  as  many  distinguished  European  scholars  do,  when 
they  fancy  that  Paul  is  a  pure  Jew,  unaffected,  except  in 
the  most  superficial  way,  by  Greek  education. 

An  example  of  the  way  in  which  Paul  adapted  his 
exposition  and  his  illustrations  to  the  circumstances  and 
education  of  his  readers,  is  furnished  by  the  form  under 
which  he  explains  to  the  Roman  Christians  that  same  idea 
— that  the  common  possession  of  faith  constitutes  a 
relationship,  analogous  to  that  of  father  and  sons,  between 
Abraham  and  the  Gentile  Christians.  To  the  Galatians  he 
uses  a  metaphor  drawn  from  Greek  law :  for  the  Romans 


Sons  of  Abraham.  343 


he  employs  (IV  11)  a  different  metaphor,  founded  on  the 
customary  usage  of  the  word  pater.  Both  in  law  and  in 
common  language  pater  in  Rome  had  a  very  much 
wider  sense  than  "  father "  in  English  :  the  pater  is 
the  chief,  the  lord,  the  master,  the  leader,  ^neas  is  the 
pater  of  all  his  followers.  A  man  may  be  described  as  the 
pater  of  all  to  whom  his  qualifications  constitute  him  a 
guide  and  leader  and  protector.  The  head  of  a  family  is 
the  lord  and  pater  over  children,  wife  and  slaves. 

Accordingly,  whereas  Paul  says  to  the  Galatians,  "  your 
possession  of  Abraham's  property  proves  that  you  are  his 
sons,"  to  the  Romans  he  says,  "  Abraham's  possession  of 
the  same  faith  that  you  possess  fits  him  to  be  your  father. 
He  possessed  faith  before  he  was  circumcised,  and  thus  is 
suited  to  be  the/<2/^r  of  the  faithful  Gentiles:  afterwards 
circumcision  was  imposed  on  him,  like  a  seal  affixed  to  a 
document,  making  him  suitable  to  be  the  pater  of  faithful 
Jews.  Thus  he  is  the  spiritual  father  alike  of  two  divergent 
classes — believing  Gentiles  and  believing  Jews.^ 

How  delicate  is  the  change  in  expression  !  yet  it  places 
us  amid  totally  different  surroundings. 

Another  example  may  be  drawn  from  Rom.  VHI  16. 
"  The  Spirit  Himself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we 
are  children  of  God ;  and  if  children,  then  heirs."  Here 
there  is  a  juxtaposition  of  the  two  ideas  "  children  "  and 
"heirs,"  just  as  in  Galatians  HI  7  the  ideas,  possession  of 
the  same  property  {i.e.,  heirship)  and  sonship,  are  brought 
together.  But  in  Galatians  the  sonship  is  inferred  from  the 
possession  of  the  property,  whereas  in  Romans  the  heirship 
is  inferred  from  the  sonship — "  if  children,  then  heirs  ".     This 

^Compare  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  io6. 


344  ^^   ^'^  Trtcrxete)?. 

is  in  strict  accord  with  Roman  law :  the  children  must 
inherit :  a  will  that  left  the  property  away  from  the 
children  was  invalid. 


XXXII 

Oi  4k  iriffreccs. 

In  this  phrase  and  the  opposite,  ol  ck  Tre/jtro/ir)?,  we  have 
two  remarkable  expressions,  which  we  can  trace  in  their 
genesis,  until  they  gradually  harden  almost  into  technical 
terms  and  badges  of  two  opposite  parties.  In  fact,  that  is 
entirely  the  case  with  oi  €k  TrepLTo/mrji;  in  Acts  XI  2  where 
a  long  history  is  concentrated  in  a  phrase. 

The  following  words  are  practically  only  an  expansion 
and  re-expression,  after  it  has  passed  through  the  medium 
of  my  own  mind,  of  a  letter  which  Dr.  Gififord  kindly  sent 
in  answer  to  my  questions,  reviewing  the  stages  of  the 
two  phrases. 

The  phrase  €k  iricrTeco'i  is  used  only  once  in  the  Septua- 
gint,  Habakkuk  II  4 — "The  just  shall  live  by  his  faith". 
Paul  took  this  saying,  connected  it  with  Genesis  XV  6 — 
"  Abraham  believed  in  the  Lord,  and  he  counted  it  to  him 
for  righteousness  " — and  found  in  the  two  the  proof  of  his 
doctrine  of  the  righteousness  that  is  of  faith — htKatocrvvrjv 

It  is  plain  that  Paul  had  used  these  two  sayings  in  his 
former  preaching  to  the  Galatians,  for  they  are  quoted  as 
familiar  truths,  whose  origin  does  not  need  to  be  formally 
mentioned,  III  6-1 1.  His  doctrine,  therefore,  must  have 
been  explicitly  set  forth  to  them  orally,  and  in  the  letter 
was  merely  recalled  to  their  memory  :  faith  is  the  source  or 


Ot  e/c  7rLcrTe(o<;.  345 

root  in  man  of  righteousness  and  of  life,  which  is  an  ex- 
pression from  a  different  point  of  view  of  the  principle 
studied  in  §  XXX,  that  the  belief  in  Christ  becomes  a 
life-giving  power,  ruling  the  nature  of  him  who  feels  it. 

Comparing  the  language  of  the  whole  passage  beginning 
II  15,  we  see  that  ol  eV  Trto-reo)?  is  an  abbreviated  expres- 
sion equivalent  to  01  eV  Trto-Teo)?  BtKaccodevre'i  ;  see  II  16, 
iVa  hiKaicoOSiixeu  eK  7rto"Tea)9  Xpiarov  fcal  ouk  e^  epycov 
vofiou  ;  III  2,  €^  epycov  vojjbov  to  Trreu/xa  eXd^ere  77  i^  aKorj^; 
'rTi(TT6(t)<i ;  III  8,  6/c  Tri(TTeco<i  SiKaiol  to,  'idvq  6  de6<i.  Already 
the  phrase  seems  to  have  a  stereotyped  form,  and  to  imply 
a  suppressed  thought  with  which  the  readers  were  familiar. 
Paul,  therefore,  in  his  teaching  to  the  Galatians,  must 
already  have  insisted  on  the  distinction  e'/c  Trto-reax?  and  ef 
'ipyoov  vofiov  (or  eV  7repiTop,fj<i)  ;  and  hence  he  could  use 
such  concise  and  pregnant  language  to  those  who  already 
had  heard,  when  he  desired  to  revivify  in  their  mind  the 
early  lessons.^ 

But  in  writing  to  the  Roman  Church,  Paul  was  addres- 
sing a  body  of  Christians  who  had  never  listened  (except 
a  few  individuals)  to  his  doctrine;  and  he  therefore  ex- 
plained his  meaning  more  fuljy  to  them.  In  that  letter 
we  read  what  was  the  kind  of  teaching  which  Paul  in  his 
preaching  set  before  the  Galatians,  and  which  he  assumes 
in  his  Epistle  as  familiar  to  them.^  His  Gospel  was 
evidently  exactly  the  same,  and  quite  as  fully  thought  out 
in  Galatia  in  A.D.  47-48,  as  in  Corinth  in  January  or 
February  A.D.  57.     He  had  seen  the  truth  before  that  early 

^  See  above,  p.  306. 

2  Romans  is  thus  on  a  logical  earlier  stage  than  Galatians,  but,  the 
circumstances  show  that  logical  priority  does  not  (as  some  scholars 
assume)  imply  chronological  priority. 


346  01 


e/c   TTtoreo)?, 


date.  Thereafter  there  was  no  further  progress  or  de- 
velopment in  his  Gospel,  though  there  was  undoubtedly  a 
great  development  on  the  practical  side,  as  regards  the 
way  and  the  accompaniments  by  which  the  Gospel  was 
to  be  spread  through  the  Gentile  world,  to  which  he  was 
from  the  first  commissioned  to  preach  it. 

In  Romans  I  17,  Paul  declares  that  the  revelation  in 
man  of  "  the  righteousness  of  God  begins  from  faith  and 
leads  on  to  fuller  faith,"  eV  Tricrreox?  ek  iriarLv,  and  he 
quotes  Habakkuk  II  4. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  he  gives  the  last  words  as  a  formal 
quotation,  when  writing  to  those  who  had  not  heard  his 
teaching  ;  but  to  the  Galatians  he  uses  them  as  a  familiar 
axiom. 

Faith,  then,  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  man's 
part  in  the  reception  of  the  righteousness  of  God  ;  and 
this  is  emphasised  in  III  21,  22,  "apart  from  the  Law 
righteousness  hath  been  manifested,"  and  III  28,  "a  man 
is  justified  by  faith  apart  from  the  works  of  the  Law  ". 

Paul  had  always  in  mind  the  idea  of  his  opponents  that 
faith  was  only  one  element  in  the  reception  of  righteousness, 
that  "apart  from  the  Law  righteousness  is  not  fully  mani- 
fested," that  "a  man  is  justified  fully  by  faith  conjoined 
with  the  works  of  the  Law".  Against  that  view  Paul 
always  appealed  to  the  authority  "  by  works  of  Law  shall 
no  flesh  be  justified"  (Gal.  II  16,  Rom.  Ill  20.)  The 
Law  is  a  preliminary,  because  it  exhibits  so  clearly  to  man 
his  own  sin,  and  thus  helps  to  produce  that  profound  con- 
viction of  sin,  which  is  a  necessary  step  towards  justification. 

Another  antithesis  is  "  through  faith  "  and  "through  Law" 
^la  7rt,<TT€(o(i  and  Sta  vofiov  (Gal.  II  16,  1 9,  Rom.  Ill  25, 
30).     This  seems  to  indicate  the  indispensable   condition 


Ot   e'/c   iricTTeoi^.  347 

or  means  for  the  continued  operation  of  the  cause  or  source. 
Paul's  view  is  that  Faith  itself  is  the  indispensable  condition 
for  the  continued  operation  of  itself:  it  is  at  once  the  cause, 
and  the  means  by  which  the  cause  continues  to  work.  It 
is  only  another  way  of  expressing  the  same  truth,  when  in 
V  6  he  speaks  of  "  faith  working  itself  out  through  love  ". 
Love  is  the  outward  form  of  faith. 

The  exact  point  in  dispute  between  Paul  and  the  Judaising 
Christians  must  be  kept  in  mind.  Both  sides  were  Chris- 
tians. Both  held  that  belief  in  Christ  was  indispensable  to 
salvation,  that  righteousness  in  man  could  not  exist  without 
faith.  But  the  Judaisers  held  that  the  Law  and  Circum- 
cision were  also  indispensable  to  at  least  the  fullest  stage 
of  righteousness.  They  were  the  party  of  believers  who 
set  the  Law  alongside  of  faith ;  and  it  would  appear  from 
Galatians  II  i6  that  Paul  represents  His  opponents'  view 
as  being  that  in  the  Jew  righteousness  came  from  works  of 
Law  through  {i.e.,  on  condition  of)  faith,  e|  epycov  vofiov  Sta 
Trlareuxi.  Hence  the  Judaistic  part  of  the  Christians  were 
ol  eK  Tr€pirofj,i]^  TTtcrrot,  as  they  are  called  in  Acts  X  45. 
In  Acts  XI  2,  the  title  is  used  in  a  still  further  abbreviated 
form  01  €K  7rept,To/j,f}<; :  but  the  meaning  is  the  same,  and  the 
idea  ttkttoi  has  to  be  supplied  in  thought. 

In  regard  to  the  Gentiles  the  view  of  Paul's  opponents 
was  expressed  in  the  form  that  full  and  complete  righteous- 
ness in  them  comes  from  faith  as  the  cause  through  the 
Law  as  the  condition,  eV  7ri<xT6&)?  Sea  vofiov. 

In  both  cases  alike  Paul  maintained  the  origin  eV  TriVretu? 
Kal  Slo,  -rriaTeco'i.  His  formula  agrees  always  with  half  of 
theirs  ;  and  when  he  contradicts  them,  he  only  contradicts 
the  discrepant  half  of  their  formula.  Hence  we  find  the 
contradictions  thus : — 


34B 


O^ 


t   €K  TTttrTeo)?. 


JUDAISTIC. 

Pauline. 

Jews  . 
Gentiles     . 

f  AC  vofiov  8ia  TTt'oTeo)?. 
e*c  irierrecos  8ia  vofiov. 

€K  nifTTfas  {leai  8ia  Triorews). 
(fV  Tri<TT€a>s  Koi)  8ia  ni<rT(a>s. 

Accordingly,  Rom.  Ill  30  means,  God  will  justify  both 
Jews  and  Gentiles  from  faith  and  through  the  continued 
operation  of  their  faith,  BiKaicoaei  Treptrofirjv  eK  Trtcrreax? 
Kai  uKpo  ^ucTTiav  Bia  rr)?  iricrreoi'i. 

Finally  the  motive  power  in  the  process  is  expressed  by 
the  dative,  by  grace,  x^P^'''''  (Rom.  Ill  24,  Eph.  II  8),  or 
by  what  is  practically  the  same  idea,  the  Spirit,  Truev/jban 
(Gal.  V  5). 

As  the  distinction  between  an  indispensable  condition 
and  a  source  is  very  fine,  the  use  of  Sui  and  eV  is  hard  to 
keep  apart.  But  it  is  noteworthy  that  we  never  find  the 
party  names  01  8td,  but  only  01  ck  irepnofirji,,  01  eK  vounv,  01 
€K  7rta-T6&)9.  In  most  places  e/e  expresses  the  fundamental 
thought;  and  hid  is  used  much  more  rarely. 

In  the  two  passages  quoted  from  Acts  the  Pauline  ex- 
pression has  crystallised  into  a  title  and  the  badge  of  a 
party.  But  in  that  case  it  is  clear  that  the  author  of  Acts 
understood  the  two  opposing  parties  to  be  already  consti- 
tuted when  he  applies  to  one  of  them  the  technical  term. 
They  who  hold  the  view  that  the  author  was  a  remarkably 
accurate  describer  of  events  must  conclude  that  he  inten- 
tionally chose  the  technical  term  in  order  to  show  that  the 
antithesis  between  the  two  views  was  already  clear  and 
definite  at  the  time  of  Acts  XI  2} 


^  Expositor,  March,  1896,  p.  198  f. 


A  Mans   Will.  349 


XXXIII 

A  MAN'S  WILL,  DIATHEKE,  III  15-18. 

An  illustration  from  the  ordinary  facts  of  society,  as  it 
existed  in  the  Galatian  cities,  is  here  stated  :  "  I  speak  after 
the  manner  of  men ".  The  will  (SiaOrjKrj)  of  a  human 
being  is  irrevocable  when  once  duly  executed :  hence  the 
Will  of  God,  formally  pledged  to  Abraham,  that  all  nations 
should  be  blessed  in  his  seed,  i.e.,  in  Christ,  cannot  be 
affected  by  the  subsequent  act  of  God  executed  centuries 
later,  vis.,  the  giving  of  the  Law.  The  inheritance  of 
blessing  comes  from  the  original  Will,  and  cannot  be 
affected  by  the  subsequent  Law. 

The  sense  of  Diatheke  in  this  passage  has  been  much 
debated  ;  and  many  excellent  scholars  declare  that  it  does 
not  mean  Will  or  Testament  (as  we  have  rendered  it),  but 
either  denotes  a  Covenant,  Bund  in  German  (so  Calvin, 
Beza,  Flatt,  Hilgenfeld,  Meyer,  Lightfoot),  or  has  the 
more  vague  and  general  sense  of  Determination,  Willens- 
verfiigung  or  Bestimmung  (so  Zockler,  Philippi,  Lipsius, 
Hofmann,  Schott,  Winer).^ 

The  question  as  to  the  sense  of  the  Greek  word  Diatheke 
in  this  passage  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the 
far  more  important  question  as  to  its  general  Biblical 
meaning.  Here  the  word  is  used  in  allusion  to  every-day 
life  among  ordinary  men.  The  Biblical  usage  is  a  different 
topic,  and  will  be  treated  in  the  following  sections.  The 
commentators  have  not  been  sufficiently  careful  to  keep 
those  two  questions  separate  from  one  another.     That  the 

I  Zockler's  statistics. 


350  A  Mans   Will. 


word  must  in  this  passage  be  taken  in  the  technical  sense 
of  Will  is  shown  by  the  following  reasons. 

In  the  first  place  the  Diatheke  is  proved  to  indicate  a 
Will  by  the  fact  that  an  inheritance,  Kkrjpovofiia,  is  deter- 
mined by  it,  III  18. 

Secondly,  Paul  says  that  he  is  speaking  "  after  the 
manner  of  men,"  III  15,  He  therefore  is  emplo3nng  the 
word  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  commonly  used  as  part  of 
the  ordinary  life  of  the  cities  of  the  East.  What  this  sense 
was  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  word  is  often  found  in 
the  inscriptions,  and  always  in  the  same  sense  which  it 
bears  in  the  classical  Greek  writers,  Will  or  Testament. 

But,  if  Paul  is  speaking  about  a  Will,  how  can  he  say 
that,  after  it  is  once  made,  it  is  irrevocable  ?  It  is  this 
difficulty  that  has  made  the  commentators  on  this  passage 
reject  almost  unanimously  the  sense  of  Will.  They  do  not 
try  to  determine  what  was  the  nature  of  a  Will  among  the 
Galatians,  but  assume  that  an  ancient  Will  was  pretty  much 
of  the  same  nature  as  a  modern  Will.  Our  procedure  must 
be  very  different.  We  have  to  take  the  word  Diatheke  in 
its  ordinary  sense  "  after  the  manner  of  men  " :  then  we 
observe  what  is  the  character  attributed  by  Paul  to  the 
Galatian  Will  :  finally  we  investigate  what  relation  the 
Galatian  Will  bears  to  the  known  classes  of  Will  in  other 
ancient  nations,  and  so  determine  its  origin. 

In  Hellenised  Asia  Minor,  at  the  time  when  Paul  was 
writing,  the  Diatheke  or  Will  was  a  provision  to  maintain 
the  continuity  of  the  family  with  its  religious  obligations ; 
and,  though  it  included  bequests  of  money  to  the  State  or 
to  individuals,  these  bequests  seem  to  be  always  regarded 
in  the  light  of  provisions  for  the  honour  and  privileges  of 
the  testator  and  his  family. 


A  Mans   Will.  351 


It  is  here  plainly  stated  that  when  the  Will  has  been 
properly  executed  with  all  legal  formalities,  no  person  can 
make  it  ineffective  or  add  any  further  clause  or  conditions. 
It  is  not  a  correct  explanation  to  say  that  "  no  person  " 
means  "  no  other,"  for  the  argument  is  that  a  subsequent 
document  executed  by  the  same  person  does  not  invalidate 
the  former.  We  are  confronted  with  a  legal  idea  that  the 
duly  executed  Will  cannot  be  revoked  by  a  subsequent  act 
of  the  testator. 

Such  irrevocability  was  a  characteristic  feature  of  Greek 
law,  according  to  which  an  heir  outside  the  family  must  be 
adopted  into  the  family  ;  and  the  adoption  was  the  Will- 
making.  Galatian  procedure,  evidently,  was  similar.  The 
appointment  of  an  heir  was  the  adoption  of  a  son,  and  was 
final  and  irrevocable.  The  testator,  after  adopting  his  heir, 
could  not  subsequently  take  away  from  him  his  share  in 
the  inheritance  or  impose  new  conditions  on  his  succession. 

That  is  a  totally  different  conception  of  a  Will  from  our 
modern  ideas.  We  think  of  a  Will  as  secret  and  inoperative 
during  the  life-time  of  the  testator,  as  revocable  by  him  at 
pleasure,  and  as  executed  by  him  only  with  a  view  to  his 
own  death.  A  Will  of  that  kind  could  have  no  application 
to  God,  and  no  such  analogy  could  have  been  used  by  Paul. 
But  the  Galatian  Will,  like  God's  Word,  is  irrevocable  and 
unalterable  ;  it  comes  into  operation  as  soon  as  the  con- 
ditions are  performed  by  the  heir;  it  is  public  and  open. 

Such  also  was  the  original  Roman  Will ;  ^  but  that  kind 
of  Will  had  become  obsolete  in  Roman  law.  It  could 
have  been  familiar  to  no  one  except  a  legal  antiquary ; 
and  neither  Paul  nor  any  other  Provincial  is  likely  to  have 


^  Maine,  Ancient  Law,  ch.  VI. 


352  A  Mans   Will. 


known  anything  about  that  ancient  Roman  idea.  In 
Rome  a  highly  developed  and  simple  form  of  Will,  called 
the  Praetorian  Testament,  had  become  usual  ;  and  it  was 
secret  and  revocable,  and  took  effect  only  after  the  tes- 
tator's death.  But  Greek  law  retained  that  ancient 
character  much  longer,  and  in  regard  to  Wills,  Galatian 
law  was  evidently  of  kindred  spirit  to  Greek  law  and 
unlike  Roman,  just  as  we  found  to  be  the  case  in  regard  to 
adoption  and  heirship,  §  XXXI. 

The  exact  sense  of  V  15  must  be  observed.  Paul  does 
not  say  that  a  supplementary  Will  (eiriBiaOiJKr})  cannot  be 
made ;  but  that  the  new  Will  cannot  interfere  with  or 
invalidate  the  old  Will.  Nature  may  necessitate  changes 
in  the  details  of  the  first  Will  :  new  children  and  heirs  may 
be  born,  and  so  on.  A  man  can  even  adopt  a  second  son 
and  heir  by  a  subsequent  Will.  Then  the  two  adopted 
sons  jointly  carry  on  the  family  in  its  religious  and  social 
aspect.  Inheritance  was  not  simply  a  claim  to  property, 
as  we  now  regard  it.  Inheritance  was  the  right  to  take 
the  father's  place  in  all  his  relations  to  the  gods  and  the 
State ;  and  two  or  more  sons  can  take  the  father's  place 
jointly,  each  being  heir.  But  in  essence  the  second  Will 
must  confirm  the  original  Will,  and  cannot  revoke  or 
add  essentially  novel  conditions.  One  example  of  such 
a  supplementary  Greek  Will  (eVtSia^r/zcT;)  is  known  :  ^  it 
confirms  and  repeats  the  original  Will. 

The  Roman-Syrian  Law-Book — which  we  have  already 
quoted  as  an  authority  for  the  kind  of  legal  ideas  and 
customs  that  obtained  in  an  Eastern  Province,  where  a  for- 
merly prevalent  Greek  law  had  persisted  under  the  Roman 

J  Grenfell,  Alexandrian  Erotic  Papyrus,  No.  21. 


A  Mans   Will.  353 

Empire — well  illustrates  this  passage  of  the  Epistle.^  It 
actually  lays  down  the  principle  that  a  man  can  never 
put  away  an  adopted  son,  and  that  he  cannot  put  away  a 
real  son  without  good  ground.  It  is  remarkable  that  the 
adopted  son  should  have  a  stronger  position  than  the  son 
by  birth ;  yet  it  was  so.  Mitteis  illustrates  this  by  a 
passage  of  Lucian,^  where  a  son,  who  had  been  put  away 
by  his  father,  then  restored  to  favour,  and  then  put  away 
a  second  time,  complains  that  this  second  rejection  is 
illegal,  inasmuch  as  his  restoration  to  favour  put  him  on 
a  level  with  an  adopted  son,  who  cannot  be  turned  away 
in  that  fashion. 

In  the  Gortynian  procedure,  this  principle  of  the  Greek 
law  was  relaxed,  and  the  adoptive  father  could  put  away 
his  adoptive  son  by  a  public  act,  declared  from  the  stone 
in  the  market-place  before  the  assembled  citizens,  but  he 
must  give  him  two  staters  as  a  guest-gift.  Evidently  the 
gift  is  a  sort  of  substitute  for  the  inheritance  ;  the  adopted 
son  had  an  indefeasible  claim  to  share  the  property,  and 
by  a  legal  fiction,  the  testator  gives  him  his  inheritance 
and  sends  him  away. 

The  adopted  son  and  heir  was  adopted  by  the  will  and 
authority  of  the  whole  community,  to  keep  up  the  exist- 
ence of  one  of  the  families  constituting  the  community. 
The  father,  therefore,  had  less  power  over  the  adopted  son 
than  over  the  born  son  ;  the  latter  was  subject  to  his 
solitary  will,  the  former  had  the  will  of  the  whole  com- 
munity on  his  side. 

^The  following  remarks  are  taken  from  Mitteis'  Reichsrecht  und 
Volksrechi,  p.  213  ff.,  who  does  not  notice  the  confirmation  by  Paul's 
words  of  the  view  which  he  states. 

'■^  Lucian,  Abdic-,  12. 

23 


354  ^  Mans   Will. 


When  Siad)]KT)  is  understood  thus,  the  paragraph  be- 
comes full  of  meaning  ;  but  this  sense  could  hardly  have 
existed  except  in  a  country  where  Greek  law  had  been 
established  for  some  considerable  time.  In  Asia  Minor  or 
Syria  the  Will  could  only  be  of  the  Greek  or  the  Roman 
type  ;  there  was  no  third  type,  for  in  no  other  land  had  a 
legal  doctrine  of  Wills  been  elaborated.  As  the  Galatian 
Will  is  unlike  the  Roman  and  like  the  Greek,  it  is  clear 
that  Greek  law  must  have  been  established  among  the 
people  to  whom  Paul  was  writing. 

To  make  this  subject  clear,  we  must  look  at  the  use  of 
hLaOrjKi)  in  Epistles  addressed  to  readers  among  whom 
Greek  law  had  never  exercised  much,  if  any,  influence,  and 
to  whom  the  Will  of  the  Roman  type,  as  current  in  the 
first  century,  alone  was  likely  to  be  known.  This  requires 
a  special  chapter,  and  some  account  of  the  Biblical  use  of 
the  term  Diatheke. 

The  expression  Mn  v.  15,  "when  it  hath  been  confirmed," 
must  also  be  observed.  Every  Will  had  to  be  passed 
through  the  Record  Office  of  the  city.  It  was  not  regarded 
in  the  Greek  law  as  a  purely  private  document,  which 
might  be  kept  anywhere  and  produced  when  the  testator 
died.  It  must  be  deposited,  either  in  original  or  in  a 
properly  certified  copy,  in  the  Record  Office ;  and  the 
officials  there  were  bound  to  satisfy  themselves  that  it  was 
a  properly  valid  document  before  they  accepted  it.  If 
there  was  an  earlier  will,  the  later  must  not  be  accepted, 
unless  it  was  found  not  to  interfere  with  the  preceding  one. 

That  is  a  Greek,  not  a  Roman  custom.  There  was  no 
such   provision   needed   in   Roman   law,  for  the  developed 


K€Kvp(t)fi€i/rji/  diadrjKrjv. 


A  Mans   Will.  355 


Roman  Will  ^  might  be  revoked  and  changed  as  often  as 
the  testator  chose  ;  and  the  latest  Will  cancelled  all  others. 

The  passing  through  the  Record  Office  took  the  place  of 
the  primitive  custom  that  the  Will  and  Adoption  must  be 
made  before  the  whole  people  in  the  public  assembly.^ 
"  In  the  Record  Office  were  preserved  public  documents  of 
all  kinds,  as  well  as  copies  of  important  private  documents, 
title-deeds,  wills,  records  of  the  sale  of  real  property, 
mortgages,  loans,  etc.  Before  a  copy  of  any  such  deed 
was  accepted  in  the  office,  its  legality  and  validity  were 
verified  ;  and  thus  the  official  in  charge  of  the  office  played 
an  important  part  in  the  business  of  the  city.  The 
existence  of  a  certified  copy  of  a  deed  in  the  Record  Office 
was  accepted  as  proof  of  legal  right ;  and  this  simple 
guarantee  facilitated  the  borrowing  of  money  on  the 
security  of  property,  besides  making  the  transfer  of 
property  and  the  verification  of  titles  very  simple."  ^ 

In  V.  16  Christ  is  called  "the  seed,"  i.e.,  the  true  seed  in 
contrast  to  other  seed,  and  we  note  that  the  preference  of 
the  "  true  seed,"  and  the  superior  right  of  the  "  true  seed  "  to 
inherit,  is  characteristic  both  of  Greek  thought  and  philo- 
sophy in  general,  and  in  particular  of  the  late  Syrian  law 
(which  we  take  to  be  a  survival  of  Seleucid  law  analogous 
to  that  which  prevailed  in  South  Galatia).*  The  late 
Roman-Syrian  Law-Book,  which  has  already  been  so  often 
quoted  in  these  pages,  justifies  the  preference  of  the  male 

^  See  p.  366. 

"^  Compare  also  the  statements  in  Greek  Egyptian  Wills  that  the 
Will  was  executed  Iv  ayviai  or  tVi  ayopav6\x.ov  :  see  next  Section. 

'Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  368  f.,  and  authorities  there 
quoted. 

*  See  p.  374  f,  393. 


356     The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

descendents  over  the  female^  in  the  same  degree  on  the 
ground  that  the  former  are  "  sought  after  by  the  laws  as 
the  true  seed  ".^  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Paul  refers  to 
that  precise  doctrine ;  but,  when  he  distinguishes  between 
seed,  and  distinguishes  one  seed  as  the  seed,  more  fully- 
entitled  to  possession  of  the  inheritance  than  other  seed  in 
the  same  line  and  degree  of  descent,  he  is  using  a  kind  of 
distinction  which  was  customary  in  Greek  thought  centuries 
before  and  centuries  after  the  time  when  he  wrote.^ 


XXXIV 

THE  USE  OF  DIATHEKE  IN  THE  PAULINE  EPISTLES. 

The  Biblical  idea,  which  is  usually  rendered  in  the  Eng- 
lish Version  by  the  word  "  Covenant,"  is  an  exceptionally 
important  one.  It  does  not  belong  to  our  purpose  to 
discuss  it  from  a  theological  point  of  view,  or  to  describe 
its  origin  and  development  in  the  religious  life  of  the 
Hebrews.  Roughly  speaking,  Paul  took  the  word  Diatheke 
to  indicate  a  certain  gracious  act  of  God,  in  the  exercise  of 
His  own  absolute  power,  towards  His  chosen  people,  con- 
ferring certain  privileges  upon  them  on  certain  conditions 
which  they  are  expected  to  fulfil  in  their  life  and  conduct : 
His  chosen  people  being  first  the  Jews,  and  in  due  course 
all  nations,  whom  the  Jews  ought  to  train  and  instruct. 
That  original  act  of  God  may  be  called  a  Promise,  or  a 
Covenant ;    but  no  single  word  expresses  fully  its  nature 

^  See  p.  367. 

"^  Die  Gesetze  suchen  den  reinen  Santen  heraus  :  Rum-Syrisches  Rechts- 
buch,  German  translation  p.  4. 
'  Mitteis,  Reichsrecht,  p.  326. 


The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.      357 

and  character ;  every  name  leaves  much  to  the  imagination 
and  thought,  the  knowledge  and  experience,  of  individual 
men,  so  that  each  man  must  make  his  own  conception  of 
the  thing  which  is  meant.  Every  word  has  a  misleading 
connotation,  due  to  its  ordinary  sense  "  after  the  manner  of 
men  "  ;  and  that  ought  to  be  stripped  off  when  one  applies 
the  word  to  the  Divine  act. 

The  Greek  word  Diatheke,  which  was  most  widely  in 
use  to  designate  that  Divine  act,  was  frequently  used  in 
ordinary  society  to  indicate  a  certain  common  act  of  legal 
character,  viz.,  a  Will  or  Testament.  This  connotation 
was  distinctly  detrimental,  when  the  Greeks  attempted  to 
understand  the  Biblical  idea,  and  to  conceive  in  its  purity 
the  character  of  the  Divine  act.  We  have  to  study  the 
action  and  language  of  Paul  in  the  face  of  this  difficulty. 
He  had  to  convey  to  his  Greek-speaking  converts  from 
Paganism  as  clear  a  conception  as  possible  of  the  Divine 
act ;  and  he  was  not  entirely  free  to  use  whatever  words  he 
chose,  for  there  was  already  in  existence  a  certain  customary 
series  of  terms,  employed  for  centuries  by  Greek-speaking 
Hebrews.  The  word  Diatheke,  which  we  have  to  study, 
occurs  nearly  300  times  in  the  Septuagint  Version  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  thirty-three  times  in  the  New  (chiefly 
in  Paul  and  in  Hebrews). 

Now  the  history  and  sense  of  the  Greek  Diatheke  is  ex- 
ceedingly obscure.  The  Diatheke  was  a  different  thing  at 
different  periods  and  in  different  parts  of  the  Greek  world. 
Yet  Paul  in  some  cases  is  clearly  trying  to  use  the  recog- 
nised ordinary  sense  of  Diatheke  "after  the  manner  of  men," 
in  order  to  aid  his  readers  to  picture  to  themselves  the 
Divine  Diatheke,  as  we  have  seen  that  he  is  doing  in  Gala- 
tians  HI   15-17.     In  trying  to  grasp  his  meaning  we  find 


358      The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

so  little  trustworthy  information  about  the  Greek  usage, 
that  we  must  attempt  to  treat  the  subject  a  little  more 
accurately  and  less  vaguely  than  the  commentators.  Most 
writers  on  "  Covenant "  discuss  the  theological  and  philoso- 
phical side  very  elaborately,  and  confine  themselves  to  a 
few  vague  and  not  very  accurate  words  about  the  Greek 
use  of  the  word  Diatheke. 

I  touch  upon  the  subject  with  reluctance  and  diffidence. 
It  lies  beyond  the  special  sphere  of  my  knowledge,  among 
the  obscurest  mysteries  of  Greek  law  and  of  theological 
theory  ;  and  I  shall  be  grateful  for  any  corrections  of,  or 
useful  additions  to,  the  statements  made  in  the  following 
paragraphs. 

The  Septuagint  translators  found  themselves  confronted 
with  a  difficult  problem,  when  they  had  to  select  a  Greek 
word  to  translate  the  Hebrew  berith.  The  Hebrew  word,, 
denoting  primarily  an  agreement,  private  or  public,  among 
men,  guaranteed  and  confirmed  by  weighty  and  solemn 
oaths  on  both  sides,  had  become  almost  a  technical  term 
to  denote  the  promises  made,  and  confirmed  by  repetition, 
by  God  to  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrew  people,  especially 
Abraham,  and,  in  a  much  less  degree,  Isaac  and  Jacob. 
As  Professor  A.  B.  Davidson  says,^  it  "had  become  a 
religious  term  in  the  sense  of  a  one-sided  engagement  on 
the  part  of  God  ".  This  sense  was  peculiar  and  unique. 
Nothing  like  it  was  known  to  the  Greeks,  and  therefore 
there  was  no  Greek  word  to  correspond  to  it.  Accordingly, 
the  translators  were  compelled  to  take  some  Greek  word, 
which  hitherto  had  denoted  something  else,  and  apply  it  to 
their  purpose.     The   word    selected    must    necessarily   be 

Mn  Hastings'  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  I,  p.  514. 


The  Use  of  D lathe ke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.     359  - 

encumbered  by  associations  connected  with  its  recognised 
meaning,  and,  therefore,  must  be  to  a  certain  degree  un- 
suitable. The  problem  was  to  find  the  least  unsuitable 
word. 

A  word  which  in  some  respects  corresponded  well  to  the 
sense  required  was  Syntheke,  crvv6i]K7),  which  brought  out 
the  binding  force  and  legal  solenmity  of  the  idea.  But  it  was 
unsuitable,  because  it  implied  pointedly  that  the  two  persons 
concerned  in  the  Syntheke  stand  more  or  less  on  a  footing 
of  equality  (though  not  necessarily  on  perfect  equality), 
each  joining  in  the  act  with  a  certain  degree  of  power  and 
voluntary  action.  But  in  the  Biblical  idea  the  power  and 
the  action  lie  entirely  on  one  side.  God  gives  the  assur- 
ance, binds  Himself  by  the  promise,  and  initiates  alone  the 
whole  agreement.  The  other  side  merely  accepts  the 
agreement,  and  has  simply  to  fulfil  the  conditions,  which 
are  often  unexpressed,  for  God  foresees  the  course  of  events, 
and  knows  how  far  the  future  action  of  the  chosen  reci- 
pients will  fulfil  the  conditions.  The  Biblical  idea  was 
one-sided,  but  Syntheke  was  two-sided  essentially. 

Yet  the  history  of  the  Greek  rendering  of  the  Old 
Testament  shows  that  Syntheke  must  have  been  felt  to  have 
some  claim,  for  the  later  translators,  Aquila,  Theodotion 
and  Symmachus,  use  that  word  in  a  number  of  cases,  where 
the  Septuagint  version  has  Diatheke}  The  reason  for  this 
change,  as  we  shall  see,  lies  in  the  gradual  development  of 
meaning  and  character  in  the  ordinary  use  of  Diatheke. 
The  word,  as  used  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  century 
B.C.,  was  a  closer  and  better  representative  of  the  Biblical 

1  The  Septuagint  version  uses  arwdrjKrj  in  a  few  cases  to  represent 
other  Greek  words,  and,  in  one  case,  4  Kings  XVII  15,  one  of  the  texts 
uses  it  to  represent  berith- 


360     The  Use  of  Diatkeke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

term  than  it  was  in  its  later  development.  The  develop- 
ment was  partly  in  the  line  of  natural  growth  in  Greek 
Will-making  (and  that  growth  seems  to  have  been  more 
rapid  in  Egypt  than  in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria),  partly  in 
the  way  of  assimilation  of  Roman  ideas  on  Wills. 

The  word  eira'^yeXia,  Promise,  might  also  have  been 
selected.  It  had  the  advantage  of  expressing  strongly 
that  the  action  and  the  initiative  proceeded  solely  from 
one  side  in  free  grace.  But  it  lacked  entirely  the  idea  of 
bond,  of  solemn  guarantee,  of  the  binding  force  of  oaths 
and  religious  sanctity,  which  was  absolutely  indispensable. 
It  was  used,  for  example,  to  indicate  the  public  promises, 
made  by  a  candidate  for  public  office,  as  to  what  he  would 
do  when  elected  ;  there  was  no  binding  force  in  those 
promises  beyond  dread  of  the  unpopularity  likely  to  accrue, 
if  they  were  not  carried  out  at  least  to  some  extent,  and 
they  were  recognised  generally  as  the  stock-in-trade  of  a 
candidate,  made  to  be  broken  as  far  as  was  safe.  Hence 
the  word  is  very  rarely  used  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
never  to  represent  berith. 

In  the  New  Testament,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  rather 
common.  Paul  seems  to  have  liked  it,  as  expressing  the 
perfect  voluntariness  of  the  act  of  God.^  It  made  the 
"  Covenant"  an  act  of  God's  grace,  wholly  undeserved  by 
any  previous  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  recipients.  Hence 
he  even  speaks  of  "the  covenants  of  the  promise"  (Eph. 
II  12),  i.e.,  the  solemn,  binding,  holy  engagement  of  God's 
voluntary  grace  and  kindness,  where  he  requires  the  two 
Greek   words,  when  he  desires  to  bring  out  very  clearly 

^  Paul  uses  BiadrjKT)  nine  times,  (irayyiKia  twenty-five  times ;  but  in 
Hebrews  (which  is  more  Hebraic  in  its  form)  8iadrjKT]  occurs  severj- 
teen  times,  enayyfXia  fourteen  times. 


The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.     361 

and  thoroughly  the  two  sides  in  the  Biblical  ideas,  the 
binding  force  and  the  free  grace. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  change  of  spirit  that  the  Old 
Testament  uses  only  the  word  indicating  binding,  inexor- 
able legal  force,  the  New  Testament  prefers  the  word 
indicating  free,  undeserved  kindness  and  grace. 

The  word  Diatheke  was  fixed  upon  by  the  Septuagint 
translators  to  represent  berith.  This  resolve  must  have 
been  formed  at  the  beginning  of  their  work.  They  took 
the  word  in  spite  of  its  associations  with  human  business 
on  the  ground  of  its  character  as  a  whole.  Now  the  word 
Diatheke  went  through  a  rapid  course  of  development 
during  the  period  B.C.  300  to  A.D.  100  or  200;  but  the 
Septuagint  translators,  taking  the  word  about  B.C.  285, 
found  it  without  any  of  the  connotation  derived  from 
the  changes  that  affected  it  after  B.C.  3(X).  It  had  such 
marked  advantages  over  any  other  word  in  Greek  for 
their  purposes  that  their  choice  could  hardly  have  been 
doubtful. 

In  the  first  place,  the  ancient  Diatheke  was  a  solemn  and 
binding  covenant,  guaranteed  by  the  authority  of  the  whole 
people  and  their  gods.  It  was  originally  executed  verb- 
ally before  the  assembled  people  as  a  solemn  religious  act, 
the  people  being  parties  to  it ;  and  even  in  Greek-Egyptian 
Wills  of  the  late  third  or  second  centuries  B.C.,  when  the 
Diatheke  had  become  a  private  document,  the  reigning 
sovereigns  were  made  parties  to  it,  and  named  executors 
of  it :  ^  this  was,  of  course,  a  mere  form,  a  sort  of  legal 
fiction,  substituted  for  the  old  fact  that  the  public  authority 
was  actually  a  party  to    the   Diatheke.      The  word   was 

^  I  am  indebted  to  Messrs.  Grenfell  and  Hunt  for  much  informa- 
tion on  the  Wills  executed  by  the  Greek  settlers  in  Egypt, 


362      The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

therefore  well   suited   to  express  the  binding  irrevocable 
solemnity  of  the  word  uttered  by  God. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Diatheke  was  primarily  an 
arrangement  for  the  devolution  of  religious  duties  and 
rights,  and  not  merely  a  bequeathing  of  money  and 
property.^  The  heir  by  Diatheke  was  bound  to  carry  on 
the  religion  of  the  family,  just  as  if  he  had  been  a  son  by 
nature,  and  was  placed  there  for  that  purpose.  The  term 
was  therefore  well  suited  to  describe  God's  promise  of  a 
religious  inheritance  to  His  chosen  people. 

In  the  third  place,  the  maker  of  the  ordinary  Diatheke 
had  full  power  in  his  hands ;  and  the  party  benefited  by 
the  Diatheke  exercised  no  authority  in  the  making  of  it. 
The  latler  had  only  to  fulfil  the  conditions,  and  he 
succeeded  to  the  advantages  of  the  Diatheke.  The  act  of 
God  was  of  the  same  one-sided  type. 

In  the  fourth  place,  while  the  noun  BiadiJKT]  is  confined 
almost  exclusively  to  the  sense  of  the  disposition  of  one's 
property  and  duties  by  Will,'^  the  verb  hiarideadai,  has  a 

^  See  above,  p.  341. 

2  That  such  was  the  sense  of  diadrjKT]  in  ordinary  Greek  is  attested 
by  the  lexicons  and  by  many  inscriptions.  The  only  exception  where 
biadrjKij  seems  to  mean  an  agreement,  is  quoted  from  Aristoph.,  Av. 
439,  but  is  not  clear.  It  contains  a  joke  founded  on  some  unknown 
popular  story  of  the  ape  and  the  woman  (or  his  wife) :  the  story  is 
explained  by  the  scholiasts  in  the  usual  Aristophanic  style,  but  little 
value  attaches  to  their  evidence,  which  has  probably  no  real  auth- 
ority, but  is  merely  gathered  out  of  Aristophanes's  own  words  :  it  does 
not  show  why  awdrjKt]  (which  would  suit  the  metre)  is  not  used  rather 
than  diadrjKTi.  Lightfoot  says  there  are  a  few  other  examples  of 
8ia0fjKr]  in  that  sense,  but  he  quotes  none,  and  they  are  unknown  to 
Steph.  Thesaurus;  and  we  must  require  exact  quotations  to  support 
so  rare  a  use  in  prose.  Hatch  carries  further  the  loose  language 
into  which  Lightfoot  (a  rare  thing  with  him)  has  fallen,  and  speaks 
of  the  Hellenistic  usage  of  diadrjKTi  as  being  similar  to  that  of 
the  Septuagint. 


The  Use  of  Dial  he  ke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.      363 

wider  sense,  and  is  used  in  the  sense  of  "  to  dispose  of  one's 
property  by  sale,"  and  in  various  other  senses  of  the  term 
"  dispose  "  or  "  arrange  "  ;  but  in  every  case  the  one  single 
party  disposes  with  authority. 

Finally,  the  central  idea  expressed  in  the  word  Diatheke 
fairly  represented  one  important  side  of  the  Biblical  concep- 
tion. The  Diatheke  was  the  concrete  expression  of  indivi- 
dual authority  over  property,  and  embodied  the  reaction 
against  the  former  system  of  family  authority.  In  a  more 
primitive  stage,  property  belonged  to  the  family  or  the 
tribe,  and  the  individual  had  no  right  to  dispose  of  it :  the 
development  of  Greek  civilisation  put  ownership  of  property 
more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  individual.  The 
tradition  was  that  Solon  passed  the  first  law  in  Athens 
permitting  the  owner  of  property  to  bequeath  it  by  a 
Diatheke,  whereas  previously  the  family  to  which  the  owner 
belonged  inherited  in  default  of  children.  Solon,  however, 
gave  the  right  of  bequeathing  only  in  default  of  male 
children,  only  under  the  form  of  adoption,  and  with  the 
obligation  that  the  adopted  heir  must  marry  the  daughter, 
if  there  was  one.  Gradually  the  freedom  of  making  Dia- 
theke was  widened,  the  individual  became  more  and  more 
master  of  his  property,  and  its  disposition  and  the  claim 
even  of  his  children  became  weaker.  He  was  permitted 
to  bequeath  legacies  to  strangers  without  adoption  ;  but 
these  legacies  seem  to  have  been  at  first  classed  as  presents 
or  gifts  {BcopeaL),  not  as  inheritances,  and  were  restricted  in 
various  ways :  ^  by  common  Greek  custom  and  the  feeling 
of  society  a  son  must  inherit,  and  an  heir  was  called  a  son. 

In  the  cases  which  are  most  familiar  to  us  in  inscriptions 

^  Mitteis,  Reichsrecht,  p.  336,  quoting  Caillemer,  Annuaire  de 
I'Assoc.  des  Et.  Gr.,  1870,  p.  34  f. 


364      The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

legacies  took,  as  a  rule,  the  form  of  religious  endowments 
intended  to  perpetuate  the  cult  and  the  memory  of  the 
deceased ;  they  are  exactly  on  the  same  footing  as  gifts 
made  by  a  living  person  to  keep  up  the  religion  and  the 
worship  of  his  deceased  child  or  relative ;  ^  and  they  are 
often  stated  to  be  by  consent  of  the  heirs. 

Hence  the  word  Diatheke  expressed  strongly  the  absolute 
authority  of  the  disposer,  who  in  the  Biblical  conception 
was  God  Himself 

Thus,  even  after  the  Greek  Will  had  lost  its  original 
character  of  being  open  and  public,  immediately  effective, 
and  irrevocable,  the  word  Diatheke  still  retained  many 
characteristics  which  fitted  it  to  be  used  as  the  rendering  for 
berith.  But,  certainly,  the  change  in  the  character  of  the 
Greek  Will  tended  to  make  the  word  less  suitable. 

To  describe  the  steps  in  the  development  of  the 
Greek  Will  would  require  a  treatise ;  but  some  points 
bearing  on  the  New  Testament  usage  of  Diatheke  may  be 
put  together  here.  The  new  evidence  gained  from  the 
many  Wills  of  Greek  settlers  found  in  Egypt, ^  from 
inscriptions,  and  from  the  Roman-Syrian  Law-Book  ^  of 
the  fifth  century  after  Christ,  has  never  been  thoroughly 
collected  and  arranged. 

1  A  good  example  of  this  is  given  in  Inscriptions  d'Asie  Mineure  in 
Rev.  Et.  Gr.,  i88g,  p.  18. 

''•See  Professor  Mahaffy^  The  Flinders-Petrie  Papyri,  introduction, 
p.  35  ff . ;  Grenfell,  Erotic  Greek  Papyrus;  Grenfell  and  Hunt,  The 
Oxyrhynchus  Papyri ;  Griech.  Urkunden  aus  den  kon.  Museen,  Berlin ; 
Kenyon,  Greek  Papyri  of  Brit.  Mus.  (contains  only  one  very  late  Will) ; 
I  have  seen  some  unpublished  Wills  copied  by  Mr.  A.  C.  Hunt,  but 
have  not  access  to  other  publications. 

^  Bruns  and  Sachau,  Bin  Syrisch-romisches  Rechtsbuch  aus  dem 
fftn/ien  Jahrhundert,  1880. 


The  Use  of  Diatkeke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.     365 

The  obscurity  in  which  the  subject  is  involved  may  be 
gathered  from  the  words  used  by  such  a  high  authority  as 
Dr.  W.  E.  Ball :  ^  "  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  St.  Paul,  in 
any  metaphor  based  upon  Will-making,  could  only  refer 
to  the  Roman  Will.  The  Romans  were  the  inventors  of 
the  Will."  He  speaks  on  the  assumption  that  there  was  no 
Greek  system  of  Will-making.  But,  as  soon  as  we  realise 
that  in  Tarsus,  in  Syria,  in  South  Galatia,  and  at  Ephesus, 
Paul  was  in  the  region  where  Greek  Wills  had  been  a  familiar 
fact  of  ordinary  life  before  a  single  Roman  had  set  foot  in 
the  Eastern  land,  and  where  Greek  Wills  were  still  custom- 
ary when  Paul  was  writing,  the  case  assumes  a  different 
aspect. 

The  case  is  complicated  by  the  difference  of  custom  and 
law  in  different  Greek  countries,  and  by  the  way  in  which 
Roman  law  affected  Greek  law  in  the  Eastern  Provinces. 
For  example,  a  Greek  Will  of-A.D.  189  in  Egypt  is  ex- 
pressed entirely  in  the  Roman  style  and  after  Roman 
custom,^  and  the  Roman-Syrian  Law-Book,  while  retaining 
many  points  of  Greek  law,^  uses  various  Roman  terms, 
and  observes  the  rule  of  the  Lex  Falcidia,  B.C.  40,  that 
three-fourths  of  the  testator's  property  is  at  his  own  dis- 
posal, but  one-fourth  must  go  to  his  children.* 

In  speaking  of  the  Roman  Will,  we  allude  only  to  the 
highly-developed  "  Praetorian  "  Will,  which  had  become 
practically  universal   in   common  life,  and    was    the  only 

^  See  p.  368. 

^  Mommsen  in  Berlin  Sitzungsber,  1894,  P-  4^  ff- 

3  See  above  p.  338. 

*  The  form  was  that  the  heir  inherited  the  whole,  but  was  obliged 
to  pay  out  of  the  property  such  legacies  as  the  testator  ordered.  The 
Lex  Falcidia  restricted  these  legacies  to  three-quarters. 


366      The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

form  of  Will  likely  to  affect  the  Provinces.  Now,  whereas 
the  Greek  Diatheke  came  in  the  third  century  B.C.  or 
earlier  to  the  East  with  Greek  settlers  and  soldiers  and 
colonies,  and  therefore  with  some  of  the  associations  of  its 
past  history,  the  Roman  Will  came  much  later,  as  a 
fact  in  the  law  of  the  conquerors,  and  without  any  associa- 
tions from  its  past  history  :  it  appeared  in  the  East  as  a 
document  which  had  no  standing  and  no  meaning  until 
after  the  testator's  death,  and  was  revocable  by  him  at 
pleasure.  Therein  lay  the  most  striking  difference  be- 
tween the  Roman  will  and  the  Greek.  I  confess  that 
several  high  English  authorities  on  Greek  Wills  in  Egypt, 
when  consulted  privately,  expressed  the  opinion  that  these 
Wills  were  revocable  at  the  testator's  desire  ;  but  they 
have  not  satisfied  me  that  the  evidence  justifies  that 
opinion  earlier  than  the  Roman  time  and  Roman  influence. 

The  Greek  Wills  in  Egypt  went  through  a  rapid  develop- 
ment. The  soldiers  who  settled  there  were  separated  from 
their  family,  and  were  sole  masters  of  their  fortune  ;  and 
therefore  the  family  influence  on  the  Diatheke,  and  family 
rights  over  the  property  of  the  individual,  which  were  so 
powerful  from  long-standing  feeling  in  the  surroundings  of 
their  old  home,  had  little  force  in  Egypt.  Everything 
concurred  to  give  the  individual  owner  absolute  right  to 
dispose  of  his  property  as  he  pleased.  The  development 
would  go  on  continuously  through  the  centuries,  for  Egypt 
was  a  battlefield  for  Greeks  and  Romans. 

In  the  Wills  in  Egypt  there  is  often  contained  the 
provision  that  the  testator  is  free  to  alter  or  invalidate. 
Such  a  provision  need  not  have  been  made,  if  Wills  were 
acknowledged  to  be  revocable  at  the  testator's  pleasure : 
he    has    to    guard    by    a    special    provision    against    the 


The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Paulifie  Epistles.     367 

customary  presumption  that  the  Diatheke  is  irrevocable. 
The  step  from  the  formal  insertion  of  this  provision  to  the 
assumption  that  the  provision  is  to  be  presumed  in  every 
case,  might  probably  be  easily  made  as  time  passed  ;  but 
whether  the  step  was  made  before  Roman  influence  came 
in  to  facilitate  it,  seems  not  to  be  proved.  The  only 
second  Will  known  seems  to  repeat  and  confirm  the  first 
(see  p.  352). 

Again,  in  a  Will  dated  in  the  year  B.C.  123  ^  the  testator 
leaves  all  his  property  away  from  his  two  sons,  except  two 
beds  :  all  the  rest  he  bequeaths  to  his  second  wife.  That 
looks  like  "  cutting  off  the  son  with  a  bed,"  a  merely 
formal  recognition  of  his  right  to  a  share :  we  remember 
that  in  Greek  law  the  owner  and  father  could  disinherit 
his  son,  but  at  first,  and  probably  for  a  long  time  or 
even  permanently,  the  act  of  disinheritance  must  be  per- 
formed by  the  father  publicly,  during  his  lifetime,  and  for 
good  reasons.^  Even  in  the  fifth  century  after  Christ  the 
principle  remained  in  force  in  Syria,  persisting  from  Seleu- 
cid  custom  and  law,  that  the  father  could  put  away  his  son 
on  good  grounds.  The  heir  by  Will  and  adoption  had  a 
stronger  legal  position  in  Greek  law  than  the  son  by  nature, 
as  we  saw  on  p.  353. 

On  the  other  hand  in  Greek  law,  a  daughter  was  not 
strictly  an  heiress.  She  had  an  indefeasible  right  to  a 
dowry,  and  this  could  be  greatly  increased  according  as 
her  father  chose,  but  she  was  styled  an  iTriicXrjpo^,  not  a 
K\7]pov6/xo<;  (as  a  son  or  adopted  son  was) ;  and  her  dowry 
must  not  encroach  seriously  on  the  son's  portion. 

^  Gizeh  Papyrus,  No.  10,388,  communicated  by  Messrs.  Grenfell 
and  Hunt. 

"  Mitteis,  Reichsrecht,  p.  336. 


368      The  Use  of  Diatheke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

In  an  unpublished  Greek  Will,  found  in  Egypt,^  of  the 
period  of  Trajan,  a  man  leaves  his  property  to  his  wife  for 
her  lifetime,  and  thereafter  to  the  children  of  his  concubine, 
who  on  their  part  are  not  free  to  alienate  it,  but  must  leave 
it  to  their  own  family.  This  implies  a  much  extended 
power  of  the  individual  over  the  disposal  of  his  property 
for  generations  ;  but  it  is  probably  due  to  the  influence  of 
Jvoman  customs  and  law. 

Obviously,  a  people  who  had  been  used  to  think  of  a 
Diatheke  as  a  private  document,  which  could  be  altered  by 
its  maker  as  he  pleased,  and  which  was  unknown  to  any 
other  until  the  maker  died,  when  it  was  unsealed  and 
became  effective,  would  see  hardly  any  points  of  agreement 
between  that  kind  of  act  and  the  Promise  of  God  to  His 
people.  The  analogy  of  the  ordinary  use  of  Diatheke 
"  after  the  manner  of  men "  would  tend  to  confuse  their 
ideas  rather  than  help  them  to  understand  the  nature  of 
God's  act.  The  only  way  to  attain  clearness  would  be  to 
treat  this  word  Diatheke  as  a  technical  term  of  the  Greek 
Bible,  unconnected  with  the  common  Will  or  Testament. 

That  is  the  case  with  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  The 
word  Diatheke  occurs  there  twice,  but  only  in  strictly 
Biblical  and  Hebraic  surroundings. 

Similarly,  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written  to  a 
people  who  knew  only  the  Roman  Will.  "  The  Rabbini- 
cal Will  was  unknown  before  the  Roman  Conquest  of 
Palestine,  and  was  directly  based  upon  the  Roman  model."  ^ 
Under  the  rule  of  Herod  in  Palestine,  as  of  Amyntas  in 

^  Communicated  by  Messrs.  Grenfell  and  Hunt :  to  be  published 
in  the  Oxyrhynchos  Papyri,  II. 

'^Dr.  Ball  in  Contemp.  Review,  Aug.,  i8gi,  p.  287.  Compare  above, 
p.  341  f. 


The  Use  of  Dial  he  ke  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.     369 

Galatia/  the  new  law  introduced  was  almost  certain  to  be 
Roman,  not  Greek.  The  pleadings  in  Rome  about  the 
comparative  validity  of  Herod's  last  Will  show  the  Roman 
character :  the  last  Will  is  tacitly  acknowledged  to  be  the 
only  one  valid,  unless  it  could  be  shown  to  have  been 
executed  in  a  state  of  unsound  mind.^ 

Even  if  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  had  been  addressed 
(as  some  think)  to  the  Church  in  Rome,  not  to  that  in 
Jerusalem,  that  would  only  show  more  clearly  how  Roman 
is  the  atmosphere  in  which  it  moves.  But  the  writer  of 
the  Epistle  was  a  Jew,  perhaps  resident  in  Caesarea,  on 
the  theory  that  it  was  written  by  the  Church  of  Caesarea  to 
Jerusalem  during  Paul's  imprisonment.^ 

In  accordance  with  this  the  word  Diatheke  in  that  Epistle 
is  generally  used  in  a  purely  Biblical  and  Hebraic  way. 
But  in  IX  15-17  the  sense  of  Diatheke  "after  the  manner 
of  men"  moves  in  the  writer's  mind,  "for  where  a  Testament, 
Diatheke,  is,  there  must  of  necessity  be  the  death  of  him 
that  made  it.  For  a  Diatheke  is  of  force  where  there 
hath  been  death  ;  for  it  doth  never  avail  while  he  that 
made  it  liveth."*  This  thought  leads  him  into  a  quaint 
and  far-fetched  train  of  reasoning,  in  order  to  show  how 
there  was  a  death  connected  with  every  Divine  Diatheke. 
It  is  quite  extraordinary  to  see  how  some  theologians 
torture  these  words  in  order  to  escape  their  plain  and  in- 
evitable meaning  (even  plainer  in  the  Greek  than  in  the 
English). 

1  See  Sections  ii,  13. 

2  Josephus,  Ant.  Jud.,  XVII  9,  5. 
^Expositor,  June,  1899,  p.  401  ff. 

*  So  R.  V.  in  margin  and  the  American  Revisers  in  text.  R.  V. 
in  text  puts  the  words  as  a  question. 

24 


370  Greek  Law  in  Galaiian  Cities. 

No  thought  of  that  kind  can  have  troubled  the  minds  of 
the  Septuagint  translators.  And  Paul  in  writing  to  the 
Galatians,  does  not  feel  it ;  and  he  assumes  that  the  Gala- 
tians  are  familiar  with  the  ordinary  human  Diatheke  as 
irrevocable  from  the  moment  when  it  was  properly  executed 
and  passed  through  the  Record  Office  of  the  city. 


XXXV 

GREEK  LAW  IN  GALATIAN  CITIES. 

We  observe  that  in  many  places  ^  Paul  assumes  among 
his  Galatian  readers  familiarity  with  a  certain  system  and 
state  of  legal  procedure.  They  are  expected  to  catch  the 
force  of  allusions  to  various  legal  facts ;  and  accordingly 
laws  of  that  type  must  have  existed  in  their  cities.  Further, 
those  legal  facts  are  not  Roman,  but  are  either  distinctly 
Greek  in  character  or  slightly  modified  from  the  Greek 
type  to  suit  the  Graecised  parts  of  Asia. 

In  the  first  place,  those  allusions  presuppose  a  considerable 
amount  of  education  among  the  Galatians.  Paul  does  not 
address  them  as  a  mere  set  of  ignorant  and  untutored 
rustics  :  he  addresses  them  as  persons  living  amid  the 
organised  administration  of  cities.  That  must  be  clear  to 
every  thinking  man ;  but  especially  clear  is  it  to  those  who 
take  the  pains  to  familiarise  themselves  with  the  state  of 
inner  Asia  Minor  in  the  century  after  Christ,  when  the 
cities  were  to  a  certain  extent  civilised  and  Graecised,  but 
the  country  districts  were  still  purely  Anatolian  in  customs, 
inhabited  by  a  population  almost  wholly  ignorant  of  Greek. 

I  See  above,  §§  XXXI,  XXXIII :  below,  §§  XXXIX,  XLI. 


Greek  Law  in  Galatian  Cities.  371 

Yet  Dr.  Zockler  seriously  maintains  that  the  Epistle  was 
addressed  to  the  people  in  the  districts  round  Pessinus. 
Apart  from  Pessinus  itself,  those  districts  were  among  the 
most  sparsely  populated  and  the  rudest  in  the  whole  of 
Asia  Minor.  As  regards  districts  of  that  kind,  only  the 
most  resolute  ignoring  of  all  knowledge  can  blind  men  to 
the  fact  that  Western  manners  and  ideas  can  hardly  have 
even  begun  to  penetrate  there  so  early.  Even  in  south- 
western Phrygia,  separated  only  by  twenty  miles  of  hill 
country  from  the  highly  civilised  and  Hellenised  Laodiceia, 
but  off  the  main  route  of  trade,  there  were  districts  where 
Greek  was  known  only  in  the  rudest  and  slightest  way  to 
the  mass  of  the  population  even  in  the  second  century.^ 
Yet  these  districts  were  far  more  open  to  Greek  influence 
than  the  remote  parts  round  Pessinus  ;  and  Pessinus  was 
still  little  affected  by  Greek  manners,^  whereas  Laodiceia 
and  the  other  cities  of  the  Lycus  valley  were  probably  en- 
tirely Hellenised  long  before  the  time  of  Christ. 

Secondly,  among  the  people  whom  Paul  addressed 
Roman  manners  had  not  been  superimposed  directly  on 
native  ways.  They  were  familiar  with  Greek  rather  than 
with  Roman  procedure  ;  and  Paul's  illustration  is  drawn 
from  Greek  legal  expression.  It  is  therefore  obvious  that, 
as  Greek  law  would  not  be  introduced  after  the  Romans 
had  occupied  the  country,  there  must  have  been  a  period 
before  the  Roman  conquest  when  Greek  law  ruled  in  the 
Galatic  territory. 

Such  would  be  the  case  with  the  country  ruled  by  the 
Seleucid.or  the  Pergamenian,  or  the  Bithynian  kings.  All 
of  them,  including  even  the  Bithynian  princes,  had,  beyond 

^  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  I,  p.  131.         ^  See  p.  139  f. 


372  Greek  Law  in  Galatian  Cities. 

a  doubt,  established  the  Greek  principles  of  society  and 
law  in  their  dominions  :  these  principles,  of  course,  were 
pretty  much  confined  to  the  cities,  and  did  not  affect  the 
rural  population.  But  in  those  countries  it  is  clear  from 
the  inscriptions  that,  before  the  time  of  Christ,  the  cities 
possessed  an  organised  municipal  government  of  the  Greek 
type,  cultivated  Greek  manners  and  education  and  used 
the  Greek  language. 

The  Pontic  and  Cappadocian  kings  are  more  doubtful  ; 
but,  in  all  probability,  Greek  civilisation  was  spread  very 
little  by  their  influence  in  their  dominions.  It  is  true  that 
Greek  was  spoken  at  their  courts  to  a  certain  (or  uncertain) 
extent,  and  their  coins  bore  Greek  legends  ;  but  hardly  the 
slightest  trace  of  Greek  city  organisation,  except  in  the 
Greek  colonies  of  the  coast,  can  be  detected  dating  from 
their  time.  Amasia  is  called  a  city  by  Strabo  (about  A.D. 
19),  and  ci polls  must  be  understood  to  have  enjoyed  some- 
thing of  a  Greek  organisation  ;  but  this  was  probably  due 
rather  to  the  natural  expansion  of  Greek  manners  and 
trade  than  to  the  intention  of  any  king  Mithridates. 
Similarly,  in  Cappadocia,  Mazaka  and  Tyana  are  called 
cities  by  Strabo. 

But  as  to  Galatia  Proper,  the  country  of  the  Gauls,  the 
case  is  practically  free  from  doubt.  The  sketch  of  Galatian 
history  given  in  our  Introduction  is  conclusive  that,  after 
a  brief  attempt  to  introduce  Greek  ways  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  second  century  B.C.  was  quenched  in  blood, 
the  loose  Celtic  organisation  and  v/ays  continued  supreme 
in  the  country,  and  there  was  the  strongest  opposition  to 
Greek  manners  and  influence.  The  opinion  of  the  best 
historical    and  legal  investigators  has  been  quoted  ^   that 

^  See  p.  131. 


Greek  Law  in  Galatian   Cities.  373 

North  Galatia  continued  for  centuries  to  be  an  Occidental 
island  amid  the  sea  of  Graeco-Asiatic  peoples.  Especially 
as  regards  the  law  of  family  and  the  rights  of  children,  we 
have  seen  that,  even  in  the  second  century  after  Christ, 
Galatian  custom  was  strongly  antipathetic  to  Greek  ideas.^ 

Further,  there  is  strong  probability — though  only  scanty 
direct  evidence  exists — that,  as  North  Galatia  grew  in 
civilisation,  it  was  not  Greek,  but  Roman  manners  and 
organisation  that  were  introduced.  During  the  century 
B.C.  the  guiding  spirits  in  the  country  had  been  first 
Deiotaros  and  then  Amyntas.  Deiotaros  was  repeatedly 
praised  for  his  Roman  spirit  by  Roman  officials  and  the 
Roman  Senate  :  he  drilled  and  armed  his  troops  as  Roman 
legions  :  he  spent  much  of  his  life  fighting  against  Greeks 
and  in  association  with  Romans.  Amyntas  was  a  creature 
of  Rome,  raised  from  a  humble  position  for  the  special  pur- 
pose of  fitting  the  country  to  become  a  Roman  Province.^ 
Roman  amusements  and  Roman  devices  for  government 
were  far  more  thoroughly  naturalised  in  North  Galatia 
than  in  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia.^ 

All  the  evidence  is  that  in  North  Galatia  Roman  ways 
had  been  superimposed  directly  on  barbarian  and  specially 
Celtic  manners.  The  religion  of  Galatia  was  indeed 
hardly  at  all  Celtic ;  but  neither  was  it  Greek  ;  it  was 
mainly  old  Phrygian.*  The  language  was  the  only  Greek 
factor  that  exercised  any  strong  influence  on  North  Galatia ; 
and  it  did  so  to  a  great  extent  under  Roman  patronage 
The  Romans  made  little  or  no  attempt  to  naturalise  the 
Latin  language  in  the  East ;  they  acquiesced  in  the  fact 
that  Greek  had  the  advantage  there,  and  they  accepted  it 

^  See  p.  131.         2  See  p.  iii  f.         ^  See  p.  132  f.         *  See  p.  144. 


374  Greek  Law  in  Galatian  Cities. 

officially.  But  even  the  language  is  exceedingly  unlikely 
to  have  been  much  known  outside  of  the  cities  in  the  time 
of  Paul,  Sec.  14. 

It  is  simply  irrational  to  maintafn  that  Paul  would  have 
attempted  to  make  religious  conceptions  plain  and  clear  to 
North  Galatian  Christians  by  means  of  Greek  ideas  and  legal 
devices  :  he  was  careful  to  adapt  his  words  and  illustrations 
to  the  needs  and  capacities  of  his  congregations.  His  power 
over  his  Churches  lay  in  his  sympathy  with  them.  The 
intense  wish  to  be  among  them,  IV  20,  enabled  him  to 
write  as  if  he  were  beside  them,  seeing  what  they  saw 
around  them. 

But  the  South  Galatian  lands  had  been  ruled  by  Greek 
officers  and  kings  from  334  onwards.  For  more  than  a 
century  they  had  been  part  of  the  Seleucid  Empire,  and 
had  been  on  the  main  route  between  the  Seleucid  capital, 
Syrian  Antioch,  and  the  Lydian  and  Phrygian  parts  of  that 
Empire.  Then  in  B.C.  189  they  had  been  transferred  to 
the  Pergamenian  kings ;  and,  though  Pergamenian  rule 
seems  "never  to  have  become  a  reality  there,  and  part  of 
the  country  seems  to  have  been  annexed  to  Galatia  and 
part  to  Cappadocia  during  the  second  century  B.C.,  yet  the 
position  of  its  cities  on  or  near  one  of  the  main  thorough- 
fares of  Greek  trade  and  of  Jewish  travel  would  maintain 
Greek  ways  and  civilisation  among  them.     See  Sec.  17-22. 

Only  in  regard  to  the  two  Roman  Coloniae,  Antioch  and 
Lystra,  it  might  be  maintained  that  their  new  foundation 
implied  a  Romanisation  of  society.  To  a  certain  extent 
it  did  so  ;  actual  Italian  settlers  would  not  abandon  their 
Occidental  ideas  of  family  and  of  inheritance.  But  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  the  Greek  population  of  the  two 
Coloniae  abandoned    Greek    ways :    on    the   contrary   the 


The  Argument  from  Seed.  375 

probability  will  be  admitted  by  every  historical  investigator 
that  in  many  respects  Greek  customs  persisted.  The 
surrounding  sea  of  Greek  manners  would  maintain  the 
Greek  element  in  the  Coloniae,  as  is  shown  in  Sections  17  ff. 
Finally,  it  is  evident  that  Greek  civilisation  was  estab- 
lished strongly  in  the  South  Galatian  cities  in  the  fourth 
century  B.C.,  and  that  the  form  of  government  in  the 
country  was  not  Greek  after  B.C.  189.  So  far  as  it  goes, 
this  establishes  a  probability  that  the  civilisation  of  those 
cities  had  more  of  the  older  Seleucid  type,  and  was  not 
open  to  the  same  continuous  and  rapid  development  as 
among  the  Greek  mercenaries  in  Egypt.  An  older  type  of 
Greek  Will  is  likely  to  have  existed  in  Iconium  and  the 
neighbouring  cities  ;  and  we  see  that  Paul's  references  to 
the  law  "  after  the  manner  of  men  "  imply  a  law  on  the 
whole  of  rather  early  type. 

XXXVI 

THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  SEED,  III  i6. 

He  saith  not  "  And  to  seeds,"  as  of  many  ;  but  as  of  one, 
"  And  to  thy  seed,"  which  is  Christ. 

It  is  necessary  for  Paul's  argument  to  show  that  all 
nations,  and  tfbt  Jews  alone,  have  the  right  to  share  in  the 
blessings  promised  to  Abraham.  He  finds  the  proof  in 
the  fact  that  the  various  promises  made  to  Abraham  were 
made  equally  to  his  seed.^  Now,  as  Lightfoot  says,  "  with 
a  true  spiritual  instinct  even  the  Rabbinical  writers  saw 
that  'the  Christ'  was  the  true  seed  of  Abraham  :  in  Him 
the  race  was  summed  up,  as  it  were  ;    without   Him  its 

^Gen.  XIII  15,  XVII  8. 


'^']6  The  Argument  from  Seed. 

separate  existence  as  a  peculiar  people  had  no  meaning." 
In  "  the  seed  of  Abraham  "  all  nations  were  to  be  blessed 
(Gen.  XXVI  8).  It  cannot  be  doubted  by  those  who 
regard  the  evolution  of  Hebraic  religion  and  the  coming  of 
Christ  as  a  series  of  steps  in  the  gradual  working  out  of 
the  will  of  God,  that  this  interpretation  of  the  "  seed  of 
Abraham"  is  justified. 

But,  instead  of  using  this  way  of  reasoning  simply,  Paul 
seems  to  have  been  tempted  to  aim  at  the  same  result  by 
a  verbal  argument.  The  Greek  philosophers  were  often 
led  astray  by  an  idea  that  mere  grammatical  facts  and 
forms  contained  some  deep  philosophical  or  mystical  truth  : 
Plato's  Cratylus  is  sufficient  evidence  of  this.  Paul,  there- 
fore, argues  that  as  the  singular,  "seed,"  is  used,  not  the 
plural,  the  single  great  descendant  of  Abraham  is  meant, 
and  not  the  many  less  important  descendants.  If  we 
rightly  take  the  meaning,  this  is,  obviously,  a  mere  verbal 
quibble,  of  no  argumentative  force.  Paul  sees  clearly  and 
correctly  the  result  to  be  aimed  at,  but  he  reaches  the  result 
by  a  process  of  reasoning  which  has  no  more  force  in  logic 
than  the  poorest  word-splitting  of  any  old  Greek  philosopher 
or  Hebrew  Rabbi. 

The  attempt  which  Lightfoot  makes  to  defend  the  char- 
acter of  the  reasoning  from  "  seed  "  and  "  seeds  "  cannot  be 
pronounced  successful.  It  amounts  practically  to  this 
"  the  theological  result  aimed  at  is  right "'  (as  we  fully 
admit),  "  therefore  the  reasoning  can  hardly  be  wrong  ". 

If  we  set  aside  the  verbal  fallacy,  the  argument  remains 
complete  and  correct. 

The  promises  were  made  to  Abraham  and  to  his 

seed. 
The  true  "  seed  of  Abraham  "  is  "  the  Christ  ". 


Function  of  the  Law.  ^jy 


"  The  Christ  "  is  the  whole  body  of  true  Christians. 

The  promises  were  made  to  all  Christians. 
That  is  to  say,   the  promises  made  to  Abraham  are    the 
heritage  of  the  whole  Church  of  Christ,  the  whole  multitude 
of  those  who  are  justified  by  faith  in  Christ. 

The  argument  is  one  more  of  the  many  ways  in  which 
Paul  reiterates  the  fundamental  truth  that  he  has  to  drive 
home  into  the  minds  of  the  Galatians,  or  rather  to  revivify 
in  their  memory.^  It  is  specially  obvious  here  that  Paul 
is  appealing  to  familiar  doctrines,  already  set  forth  to  the 
Galatians,  and  not  arguing  to  a  circle  of  readers  on  a  topic 
new  to  them. 

XXXVII 

FUNCTION  OF  THE  LAW,   III  19-22. 

In  this  passage  Paul  guards  against  a  possible  misin- 
terpretation of  his  words,  which  might  be  dangerous.  It 
might  be  said  that  he  was  representing  the  law  as  being  in 
opposition  to  the  Promises  made  to  Abraham  and  his 
seed.  He  must  therefore  define  clearly  what  he  conceives 
to  be  the  function  of  the  law.  The  same  person,  the  one 
God,  gave  both  the  Promises  and  the  Law.  The  Promises 
were  to  be  fulfilled,  not  immediately,  but  after  a  long 
interval,  not  to  each  individual  of  the  human  "  Seed  of 
Abraham,"  but  to  and  through  the  "the  Seed,"  i.e.,  the 
Christ.  The  Law  is  the  preparation  for  the  fulfilment  of 
the  Promises.  There  must  be  a  clear  and  peremptory  for- 
bidding of  sin,  before  the  sin  is  made  emphatic  and  beyond 
palliation  or  excuse.     "  The  times  of  ignorance  God  might 

1  See  §  XXI. 


2,7 S  Function  ef  the  Law. 

overlook,"  as  Paul  said  to  the  Athenians  ;  but  none  who 
sinned  against  the  clear  Law  could  try  to  shelter  themselves 
behind  such  a  plea.  Moreover,  the  Law  was  necessary  (as 
has  been  said,  p.  336)  in  order  that  the  overwhelming 
consciousness  of  sin,  which  is  a  necessary  preliminary  to 
true  faith  in  Christ,  might  be  produced  in  the  minds  of 
men. 

The  Law  would  have  been  contrary  to  the  Promises  if  it 
had  been  intended  to  produce  the  same  result  as  they  by  a 
new  way,  and  therefore  had  rendered  them  unnecessary. 
The  Promises  are  promises  of  life  and  salvation  ;  and  if 
a  Law  such  as  could  produce  life  and  salvation  had  been 
given  from  Mount  Sinai,  then  this  Law  would  really  have 
interfered  with  and  nullified  the  Promises. 

But,  on  the  contrary,  the  Scripture  declares  that  the 
effect  of  the  Law  is  to  "  shut  up  everything  under  the 
dominion  of  sin  without  means  of  escape  "  (Lightfoot),  in 
order  that  men  might  be  forced  to  look  forward  to  "the 
Christ"  as  the  only  means  of  escape,  the  only  hope  of  life 
and  salvation. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Paul  makes  only  the  vague 
reference  to  "the  Scripture,"  and  does  not  quote  a  special 
passage.  His  words  are  intelligible  only  on  the  supposition 
that  they  are  a  brief  summary  of  a  more  elaborate  exposi- 
tion of  the  combined  effect  of  several  passages,  which  he 
had  delivered  in  his  earlier  preaching  to  the  Galatians. 

The  expression  "by  faith  to  them  that  believe,"  V  22, 
lie  TTiUTeoi^i  Toi<;  TTLaTevovaw,  is  rendered  very  strong  by 
the  repetition.  As  has  been  pointed  out  on  page  347,  €k 
TTio-Teco?  must  be  understood  as  emphatically  denying  the 
opposite  doctrine  of  the  Judaising  Christians — the  source 
is  €K  7rto-Te&)9,  not  ex  vofiov. 


The  Medial 07^.  379 


XXXVIII 

THE  MEDIATOR,  III  20. 

"  The  Law  was  ordained  through  angels  by  the  hand  of  a 
mediator.     Now,  a  mediator  is  not  of  one,  but  God  is  one." 

The  precise  meaning  of  the  argument  that  lies  in  the 
words  of  III  20  is  very  difficult  to  catch  ;  and  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  add  one  to  the  250  or  300  interpretations  that 
have  (according  to  Lightfoot)  been  proposed  for  this  passage. 
We  have  in  §  XXXVI  found  a  case  where  Paul  sees  the 
right  result,  and  yet  attains  it  by  an  argument  founded 
on  the  generally  accepted,  though  mistaken,  view  of  that 
period,  that  grammatical  forms  had  a  deep  philosophical 
meaning  (usually  assigned  on  arbitrary  and  capricious 
grounds  to  suit  some  individual  instance).  Is  it  not  the 
case  here  also,  that  he  aims  at  a  right  result,  but  reaches  it 
by  a  bad  process  of  reasoning  ? 

Paul  is  evidently  emphasising  a  certain  contrast  that 
exists  between  the  free  grace  of  the  Promises  and  the 
indirect  character  of  the  Law — the  Law  being  merely  a 
means  to  an  end  beyond  itself,  and  not  being  the  sufficient 
and  ultimate  gift  of  the  grace  of  God.  The  distinction  is 
undeniable  and  of  immense  importance.  In  this  paragraph, 
therefore,  he  does  not  use  the  word  Diatheke  to  indicate 
the  "covenant"  made  with  Abraham.  In  accordance  with 
the  distinction  drawn  in  §  XXXIV,  it  is  necessary  for 
him  to  use  the  word  "  Promise,"  iirayyeXia,  in  order  to 
emphasise  the  character  of  freedom  and  grace  in  the 
covenant  made  by  God  with  Abraham  and  his  seed.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  words  "Promised"  or  "Promises"  occur 
three  times  in  the  short  paragraph  {vv.  19,  21,  22)  :   the 


380  The  Mediator. 


Greek  text  has  the  verb  instead  of  the  noun  in  19,  where 
the  English  translation,  if  literal,  would  be  "the  Seed  to 
whom  it  hath  been  promised  ". 

The  Law  did  not  come  immediately  and  directly  from 
God  to  men.  It  was  conveyed  from  God  by  angels  ;  and  a 
mediator,  viz.,  Moses,  carried  it  down  from  the  Mount  to  the 
Hebrew  people.  This  method  is  far  less  gracious  and  kind 
than  the  direct  communication  from  God  to  Abraham  ;  and 
brings  out  the  consciousness  of  an  impassable  gulf  separat- 
ing God  from  even  the  chosen  people.  The  allusion  to  the 
angels  seemed  founded  more  on  Rabbinical  interpretation 
and  later  tradition  than  on  the  text  of  the  Books  of  Moses  ; 
but  the  words  of  Stephen  (Acts  VII  53)  and  of  Herod  in« 
Josephus,^  as  quoted  by  Lightfoot  and  commentators 
generally,  seem  to  imply  that  the  common  belief  of  the 
time  supposed  the  ministry  of  angels. 

A  mediator  implies  one  who  goes  between  two  parties  to 
an  agreement,  and  therefore  to  a  certain  degree  might 
seem  to  diminish  the  absolute  authority  and  completeness 
of  the  one  party  in  this  case.  Can  this,  then,  be  the  sense 
of  the  last  words  of  v.  20,  "  but  God  is  one  ".  So  Lightfoot 
thinks,  and  so  it  may  be.  But  it  seems  an  unsatisfactory 
form  of  expression  ;  and  I  cannot  avoid  the  suspicion  that 
Paul  here  is  betrayed  into  a  mistake,  and  is  thinking  of  the 
other  and  infinitely  more  important  sense  of  the  words, 
"God  is  one" — as  in  Romans  III  30. — "  He  is  one  and 
the  same  God  in  all  His  acts,  one  God  makes  both  the 
Promises  and  the  Law."  The  argument  would  then  be  a 
fallacy,  "  a  mediator  implies  (two  parties),  but  God  is  one  ". 
I  may  probably  be  wrong  ;  but,  if  one  speaks,  one  must  say 


i^«/./M^.,  XV5,  3- 


Law  the  Child- Guardian.  381 

what  one  thinks.      Here,  while  Paul  aims  at  a  great  truth, 
he  reaches  it,  I  think,  by  a  mistaken  argument. 

We  have  here,  as  recognised  in  the  translation  (repeated 
by  Zockler  and  others,  and  not  disputed  by  Lightfoot,  but, 
seemingly,  recognised  by  him  as  the  obvious  sense),  a  clear 
and  apparently  undisputed  example  of  a  participle  used  in 
the  sense  of  /cat  with  a  finite  verb  :  "  The  Law  was  added 
because  of  transgressions,  till  the  Seed  should  come  to 
whom  the  Promise  had  been  made,  and  it  was  ordained 
through  angels  etc.,"  where  the  Greek  has  merely  the 
participle  "  being  ordained  ".  But,  distinctly,  the  giving  of 
the  Law  by  God  is  the  first  step,  and  the  carrying  into 
effect  by  means  of  angels  is  the  following  step.  This  is 
one  of  the  many  examples  justifying  the  construction  BiP/Xdov 
.  .  .  KCdkvdevre^  in  Acts  XVI  6,  in  the  sense  which  I  have 
pleaded  for,  "  they  traversed  .  .  .  and  were  prevented," 
That  loose  usage  of  the  participle  is  common  in  the  later 
Greek  and  Latin. 

XXXIX 

LAW  THE  CHILD-GUARDIAN,  III  23-25. 

Before  the  age  of  Faith  began,  we  of  the  Jewish  race 
were  shut  up  and  kept  under  the  guard  of  the  Law,  in 
preparation  for  (with  a  view  to)  the  approaching  revelation 
of  Faith.  Thus  the  Law  has  played  the  part  of  "  a  servant, 
responsible  for  our  safety,  and  charged  to  keep  us  out  of 
bad  company,"^  until  the  age  of  Christ  arrived,  so  that  we 
might  be  made  righteous  by  Faith.     For  that  result  could 

^  The  best  way  of  explaining  Paul's  meaning  is  to  imitate  closely 
the  description  of  a  Paidagogos  given  in  the  Dictionary  of  Antiquities 
(Smith),  II,  p.  307. 


382  Law  the  Child- Guardian. 

not  have  been  attained  unless  special  care  had  been  taken 
of  us  during  the  interval.  We  could  not  safely  be  permitted 
to  be  free  at  that  time,  for  we  could  not  then  acquire  Faith, 
that  vitalising  and  strengthening  power,  seated  in  our  mind 
and  working  itself  out  in  our  conduct,  which  enables  those 
who  have  seen  and  known  Christ  to  be  free  and  yet  safe. 

But  now  the  age  of  Faith  has  begun,  and  we  are  set  free 
from  the  guard  and  the  directing  care  of  the  Law. 

When  Paul  compared  the  Law  to  a  paidagogos,  he  in- 
tended undoubtedly  to  describe  it  as  having  a  good  moral 
character,  and  exercising  a  salutary,  though  a  strict  and 
severe,  effect  on  those  who  were  placed  under  it.  He 
speaks  no  evil  of  the  Law ;  he  represents  it  as  subsidiary 
and  inferior  to  Faith,  but  still  as  a  wholesome  provision 
given  in  God's  kindness  to  the  Jews. 

Further,  he  chose  an  illustration  which  would  make  this 
clear  to  his  Galatian  readers  ;  and  they  must,  therefore, 
have  been  familiar  with  that  characteristic  Greek  institution, 
the  paidagogos,  and  considered  it  salutary  and  good.  This 
throws  some  light  on  the  social  organisation  in  the  Galatian 
cities,  for  it  places  us  in  the  midst  of  Greek  city  life,  as  it 
was  in  the  better  period  of  Greek  history.  "In  the  free 
Greek  cities  the  system  of  educatisn  was  organised  as  a 
primary  care  of  the  State.  The  educational  system  was 
the  best  side  of  the  Greek  city  constitution.  Literature, 
music  and  athletics  are  all  regulated  in  an  interesting 
inscription  of  Teos,  the  salaries  of  the  teachers  are  fixed, 
and  special  magistrates  survey  and  direct  the  conduct  of 
teachers  and  pupils."  ^ 

In  that  period  it  would  appear  that  \h.&  paidagogoi  were 

I  Shortened  from  Cities  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  II,  p.  440. 


Law  the  Child- Guardian.  383 

trusted  servants  and  faithful  attendants,  standing  in  a  very- 
close  relation  to  the  family  (in  which  they  were  slaves). 
Their  duty  was  not  to  teach  any  child  under  their  charge, 
but  simply  to  guard  him.  Among  the  Romans,  who 
adopted  this  institution  from  the  Greeks,  the  paidagogos 
gave  some  home  instruction  to  the  child :  he  was  a  Greek- 
speaking  slave,  who  looked  after  the  child,  and  taught  him 
to  use  the  Greek  language.  Though  he  also  accompanied 
the  child  to  school,  yet  there  was  not  the  same  kindly 
feeling  in  the  relationship  of  guardian  and  ward  in  Rome 
as  in  Greek  cities  during  the  better  period.  Roman /<2/</a- 
gogoi  were  often  chosen  without  the  slightest  regard  to  the 
moral  side  of  their  teaching,  and  brought  the  child  in 
contact  with  the  lower  side  of  life  among  vicious  slaves  ; 
among  the  Greeks  in  the  later  period,  amid  the  steady 
degeneration  of  Pagan  manners  in  the  whole  Roman 
empire,  Plutarch  complains  that  a  slave,  worthless  for  any 
other  purpose,  was  used  .as  2,  paidagogos  ;  and  a  little  earlier 
Juvenal  gives  a  terrible  picture  of  the  upbringing  of  young 
children,  which,  though  exaggerated  in  his  usual  style,  is 
still  an  indication  of  what  was  characteristic  of  ordinary 
pagan  homes  (though  certainly  with  some,  perhaps  with 
many,  brilliant  exceptions). 

In  contrast  with  the  care  for  education  shown  in  the 
government  of  Greek  cities,  the  Roman  imperial  govern- 
ment lavishly  provided  shows  and  exhibitions  of  a  more 
or  less  degrading  character  for  the  population  of  Rome  and 
the  Provinces,  while  the  degeneration  of  the  provision  for 
watching  over  and  educating  the  young  in  the  cities  was 
the  worst  feature  of  the  Roman  period.  This  had  much  to 
do  with  the  steady  deterioration  in  the  moral  fibre  of  the 
population,  and  the  resulting  ruin  of  the  empire. 


384  Law  the  Child-Guardian. 

This  passage  of  the  Epistle,  therefore,  places  us  in  the 
midst  of  Greek  city  life  as  it  was  in  the  better  period  of 
Greek  history.  When  read  in  relation  to  the  provision  for 
education  in  the  Greek  cities,  the  illustration  which  Paul 
selects  becomes  much  more  luminous. 

But  there  is  nothing  here  characteristic  of  North  Galatia. 
We  are  placed  amid  the  Greek-speaking  population  of 
Antioch  and  Iconium,  where  Greek  ways  and  customs  had 
been  naturalised  since  Alexander  had  conquered  the  country 
and  left  behind  him  a  long  succession  of  Greek  kings, 
Even  in  Lystra,  recently  founded  as  a  military  station  in  a 
more  barbarous  district,  and  off  the  main  line  of  trade,  the 
probability  is  that  only  a  minority  of  the  population  were 
so  used  to  education  that  this  illustration  would  have  ap- 
pealed to  them  ;  but  I  have  often  argued  that  it  was  among 
that  minority  that  Christianity  first  spread.^ 

Moreover,  it  is  an  early  state  of  Greek  manners  which  is 
here  presented  to  us.  We  turn  to  Plato  for  the  best  illustra- 
tion of  Paul's  meaning,  and  not  to  late  writers.  Compare 
what  has  been  said  about  Diatheke,  p.  375. 

That  is  all  characteristic  of  South  Galatia,  where  the 
chief  Graecising  influence  was  the  Seleucid  rule,  ending  in 
B.C.  1 89.  Thus  it  was  a  rather  early  form  of  Greek  society 
which  maintained  itself  in  a  city  like  Pisidian  Antioch  ; 
and  that  society  was  likely  to  be  kept  vigorous  by  the 
constant  struggle  which  it  had  to  maintain  against  Oriental 
influence. 

This  passage  throws  an  interesting  light  on  Paul's  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  purpose  in  the  world.  The  Disposi- 
tion by  God  of  the  religious  inheritance  which  ultimately 

1  Church  in  Rom.  Emp.  pp.  57,  146 ;  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  ch.  VI, 


Equality  in  the  Perfect  Church.  385 

is  intended  for  all  men,  involved  a  gradual  training  of 
mankind  in  order  that  they  might  be  able  to  accept  the 
inheritance  by  fulfilling  the  conditions  :  the  Disposition  is 
first  in  favour  of  one  man,  then  of  a  nation,  finally  of  all 
nations.  The  one  man  at  first  needed  no  schoolmaster : 
he  was  able  to  respond  at  once  to  the  requirements  of  God. 
But  the  nation,  when  it  came  to  exist,  was  not  able  in  itself 
to  rise  to  the  conditions  which  God  demanded.  It  needed 
education  and  the  constant  watching  of  a  careful  guardian  : 
the  Law  was  given  to  watch  over  the  young  nation  as  it 
was  being  trained  and  educated  in  the  school  of  life :  the 
Law  was  not  itself  the  teacher,  but  the  paidagogos.  Then 
came  the  age  of  Christ,  who  opened,  first  to  the  Jews  and 
through  them  to  all  nations,  the  door  of  Faith. 

No  other  reference  to  paidogogoi  occwrs  in  Paul's  writings, 
except  I  Corinthians  IV  15.  It  may  perhaps  be  fanciful, 
but  it  seems  to  me  as  I  read  that  passage  that  it  is  dis- 
tinctly more  contemptuous  in  tone  than  the  allusion  in 
Galatians  III  24,  25.  Moreover,  it  implies,  apparently, 
that  the  paidagogoi  are  teachers,  elementary  teachers,  of 
those  whom  they  look  after.  There  we  have  the  later,  the 
Romanised  conception  of  the  paidagogos,  which  naturally 
ruled  in  a  town  like  Corinth  that  was  at  once  a  highly 
developed  Greek  city  and  a  Roman  colony. 

XL 

EQUALITY  IN  THE  PERFECT  CHURCH,  III  26-30. 

\xiv.  25  Paul  changes  almost  unconsciously  from  the  use 
of  "  we,"  as  "  we  Jews,"  to  the  wider  sense,  in  which  it  em- 
braces also  the  Galatians  (and  all  Gentiles  who  come  to 
the  Faith).     Then  he  explains  in  vv.  26-30  why  he  ranks 

25 


386  Equality  in  the  Perfect  Churcli. 

Galatians  and  Jews  together.  "  The  working  of  the  Faith 
which  you  feel  in  Christ  Jesus  makes  you  sons  of  God,  for 
all  who  are  baptised  to  Christ  have  clothed  themselves  with 
Christ,  and  put  His  nature  and  person  round  them  in  be- 
coming His  people.  Christ  is  the  sum  of  all  who  believe 
in  Him;  He  takes  them  all  into  Himself;  He  admits  no 
distinction  of  nationality,  or  of  rank,  or  of  sex  ;  all  are 
placed  on  an  equality  and  made  one  in  Him.  And  if  you 
are  part  of  Christ  and  partake  His  nature,  then  you  are  the 
seed  of  Abraham  (for  Christ  is  the  true  seed  of  Abraham, 
V.  16),  and  therefore  you  are  heirs  according  to  God's 
promise." 

Comparing  this  passage  with  Paul's  writings  as  a  whole, 
we  see  that  this  obliteration  of  distinctions  in  Christ  is  the 
end,  but  not  the  beginning,  of  the  life  in  Christ.  Beyond 
all  doubt  Paul  considered  that,  practically,  to  become  a 
part  of  Christ  implied  membership  of  the  Church  of  Christ : 
that  was  the  actual  fact,  as  the  world  was  constituted. 
But  the  Church  was  not  to  begin  by  abolishing  all  distinc- 
tions in  social  life  or  in  nationality :  that  abolition  would 
be  the  result  of  the  gradual  working  of  Faith  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  of  the  gradual  lessening  of  the  distance  that 
separated  the  actual  state  of  these  struggling  and  imperfect 
congregations  from  the  perfect  realisation  of  their  true 
nature  in  Christ.^ 

Paul  rather  accepted  the  existing  political  system  and 
the  state  of  society,  with  its  distinctions  and  usages,  except 
in  so  far  as  they  were  positively  idolatrous.  He  bade  the 
slave  continue  as  a  slave,  the  woman  stand  in  the  same 

1  The  difference  in  tone  and  spirit  of  the  Pastoral  from  the  rest  of 
the  PauHne  Epistles  is  greatly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  former  are 
concerned  chiefly  with  the  practical  steps  in  an  early  congregation. 


Equality  in  the  Perfect  Chtirch.  387 

relation  to  the  man  as  was  the  rule  of  society.  The  realisa- 
tion by  each  individual  of  his  or  her  true  life  in  Christ  was 
to  b'e  sought  in  accepting,  not  in  rebelling  against,  the 
present  facts  of  life  in  the  world  :  their  present  situation 
was  of  small  consequence  in  comparison  with  the  state  to 
which  Faith  would  bring  them. 

But  the  words,  which  Paul  here  uses,  necessarily  and 
inevitably  imply  that  the  Church,  as  it  disengages  itself 
from  and  rises  above  the  existing  state  of  society,  and  as 
it  remakes  the  facts  of  the  world  in  the  course  of  its  growth, 
must  rise  above  those  distinctions  which  have  no  reality  in 
Christ. 

How  far  the  Apostle  was  conscious,  at  the  moment,  of  the 
full  meaning  that  lay  in  his  words,  is  doubtful.  He  uttered 
the  truth  as  he  saw  it  dimly  revealed  to  him  :  he  was  not 
interested  in  speculation  as  to  its  future  effect  on  society : 
he  lived  in  the  present  crisis.  An  observant  and  thoughtful 
citizen  of  Rome  might  perhaps  have  been  able  to  see — as 
the  modern  scholar  can  now  look  back  and  see — how  the 
diffusion  of  Roman  civilisation  and  government  was  tending 
to  obliterate  the  distinctions  of  nation  and  race,  and  to 
unite  alien  peoples  in  a  wider  patriotism.  The  philosophic 
mind  might  perhaps  see — as  some  philosophers  then  actu- 
ally saw;  at  least  dimly  and  faintly — that  the  subjection  of 
one  man  as  a  slave  to  another  was  unnatural,  and  must 
pass  away.  We  can  now  see  that,  though  not  very  clearly  : 
nominally  we  have  abolished  slavery,  but  really  slavery  is 
far  from  abolished  in  any  country. 

But  what  is  implied  as  to  the  relation  of  man  and  woman 
by  these  words  of  Paul's  we  still  cannot  discern.^     We  can 

^The  change  of  form,  "bond  nor  free,  male  and  female,"  springs 
from  the  feeling  that  the  two  cases  are  not  precisely  analogous. 


388  Equality  in  the  Perfect  Church. 

indeed  see  with  certainty,  in  comparing  nation  with  nation 
and  rehgion  with  reHgion,  that  one  of  the  most  important 
forces  in  the  progress  of  society  lies  in  the  education  which 
the  mother  conveys  to  her  children,  and  that  where  a 
religion  (as,  for  example,  Mohammedanism)  does  not  tend 
to  raise  the  standard  of  thought  and  feeling,  knowledge  and 
character,  among  its  women,  no  amount  of  excellence  in 
abstract  principles  and  truths  will  make  that  religion  a 
practical  power  for  steadily  elevating  the  race  which  clings 
to  it.  From  the  contemplation  of  such  facts  we  may  guess 
as  to  the  future,  but  we  can  only  guess. 

In  considering  the  history  of  Mohammedanism — the 
contrast  between  the  earlier  glories  and  the  later  impotence 
and  stagnation  of  the  peoples  whom  it  first  affected — the 
marvellously  rapid  educating  power  that  it  exerts  on  a 
savage  race,  raising  it  at  the  first  moment  of  conversion  to 
a  distinctly  higher  level  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  life, 
and  yet  the  following  acquiescence  in  that  level  or  even  the 
sinking  again  below  it — even  the  least  thoughtful  observer 
must  seek  for  some  explanation  of  so  remarkable  a  history 
and  so  extraordinary  a  contrast.  The  traveller  who 
studies  a  Mohammedan  people  in  its  actual  state  has  no 
difficulty  in  finding  the  explanation  ;  he  is  struck  with  the 
utter  want  of  education  inside  the  home,  and  he  sees  that 
the  position  of  the  women,  their  utter  ignorance  (which  is 
so  complete  that  they  have  no  subject  to  converse  or  think 
about  except  the  most  elementary  facts  of  physical  and 
family  life),  their  general  inability  to  entertain  for  them- 
selves or  to  impress  on  their  children  any  ideas  of  duty, 
any  principles  of  good  conduct,  any  desire  for  a  higher 
level  of  life,  any  aspirations  after  any  object  except  the 
most  gross  and  vulgar,  any  habits  of  regularity,  of  work,  of 


Equality  in  the  Perfect  Church.  389 

thought  and  meditation.^  He  realises  that  a  nation  can- 
not permanently  remain  on  a  level  above  the  level  of  its 
women,  that  if  it  rises,  under  the  immediate  stimulus  of  a 
great  moral  idea  (such  as  Mohammedanism  was  to  the 
brutalised  Arab  tribes  among  whom  it  was  first  preached) 
to  a  higher  plane  of  thought  and  life,  it  cannot  long  main- 
tain itself  on  that  plane,  unless  its  women  rise  to  it  and 
kindle  and  foster  similar  ideas  in  the  minds  of  succeeding 
generations  when  young.  He  will  see  that  the  progress  of 
the  Christian  nations  is  founded  on  the  keeping  alive  of 
education  and  thought  and  conscious  moral  purpose  among 
their  women,  and  that  the  opening  to  them  in  the  Christian 
religion  from  the  first  of  suitable  opportunities  for  growing 
morally  and  intellectually  is  one  of  the  necessary  and 
primary  conditions  of  national  health.  He  will  be  slow  to 
set  in  his  thought  any  limits  to  the  possible  future  develop- 
ment of  a  nation  in  which  the  women  are  always  on  the 
highest  level  of  the  existing  generation. 

The  one  occasion  on  which  Paul  has  touched  this  great 
truth  is  in  the  sentence  that  lies  now  before  us.  There  is 
no  other.  In  the  Epistle  in  which  his  nature  is  most  deeply 
moved,  he  speaks  with  the  truest  prevision  of  what  shall 
come  in  the  future  of  the  Church.  Where  he  pleads  most 
passionately  for  freedom,  he  speaks  most  like  the  prophet, 
and  least  like  the  legislator  and  moralist  intent  on  what 
can  be  achieved  in  the  present.     See  §  LIV. 

The  remarkable  expression  used  here  is  one  of  the  many 
little  touches  throughout  this  Epistle  which  place  the  reader 
in  the  Graeco-Phrygian  cities  of  Asia  Minor.     Among  them 

^  This  is  merely  a  condensation  of  one  main  subject  in  the  writer's 
Impressions  of  Turkey,  especially  ch.  II,  where  the  thought  is  worked 
out  as  the  details  of  life  came  before  his  mind. 


390  Equality  in  the  Perfect  Church. 

the  position  of  women  was  unusually  high  and  important, 
and  they  were  often  entrusted  with  offices  and  duties  which 
elsewhere  were  denied  them.^  Hence,  the  allusion  to  the 
equality  of  the  sexes  in  the  perfect  form  which  the  Church 
must  ultimately  attain,  would  not  seem  to  the  people  of 
these  Graeco-Phrygian  cities  to  be  so  entirely  revolutionary 
and  destructive  of  existing  social  conditions  as  it  must 
have  seemed  to  the  Greeks.  The  Greeks  secluded  respect- 
able women,  and  granted  education  to  them  only  at  the 
price  of  shame  ;  but  few  Phrygian  cities  were  fully  Hellen- 
ised  in  this  respect. 

Moreover,  the  duty  of  obedience  had  to  be  urged  on  the 
Greeks,  but  what  most  impressed  itself  on  Paul  was  the 
need  of  encouraging  the  Galatians  to  freedom  ;  §  LI  V. 

Accordingly,  in  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  i  ch.  XI, 
he  seems  to  have  been  so  much  impressed  with  the 
danger  that  women  were  already  going  too  far  in  throwing 
off  the  trammels  of  existing  social  rules,  that  he  had  to 
inculcate  on  them  submission  and  recognition  of  present 
custom  as  the  first  duty.  The  same  practical  necessity 
was  on  him  in  writing  to  other  Greek  communities  as  in 
Crete  or  Asia  :  ^  the  existing  congregations  of  Asia  were  all 
in  the  most  thoroughly  Hellenised  parts  of  the  Province. 

But  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  Paul's  frequent  insistence  on 
the  duty  of  women  to  comply  with  existing  social  restraints 
and  the  uniqueness  of  this  reference  to  the  ideal  of  the 
future  tended  to  lead  the  "  Orthodox  "  Church  too  far  in 
the  direction  of  the  subjection  of  women.     Moreover,  the 

1  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  67  f.,  161,  345,  375,  398,  403, 
452-9,  480. 

2  The  letters  to  Timothy  and  Titus  are  of  course  to  be  interpreted 
with  reference  to  the  people  among  whom  they  were  at  work. 


The  Infant  Son  and  Heir.  391 

importance  of  women  in  Phrygia  stood  in  close  relation 
with  the  native  Phrygian  religion/  the  great  foe  of  Chris- 
tianity in  its  earliest  steps  in  the  country,'^  and  the  Church 
was  therefore  liable  to  be  thrown  to  the  opposite  side.  The 
fact  is  certain  that  in  Asia  Minor  it  was  usually  the  "heretics" 
who  placed  women  in  the  most  honourable  position,  and 
the  "Orthodox  "  who  least  saw  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity 
in  relation  to  women  and  their  true  place  in  society. 

XLI 
THE  INFANT  SON  AND   HEIR  (Gal.  IV  1-7). 

So  long  as  the  son  who  has  succeeded  to  an  inheritance 
is  a  child,  he  is  treated  in  practice  like  a  slave  subject  to 
orders,  though  in  theory  he  is  the  owner  and  master.  But 
the  property  and  its  child-master  are  directed  by  guardians 
and  stewards,  until  the  child  has  reached  the  age  named  in 
the  Diatheke  of  his  father. 

Here  we  observe  the  distinctively  Greek  touch  that  the 
term  "heir,"  used  by  Paul,  is  almost  convertible  with 
"son".^  The  same  term  is  often  used  in  the  inscriptions 
of  Asia  Minor  and  elsewhere  in  precisely  the  same  way  as 
here  to  indicate  "  a  son  after  he  has  succeeded  to  the 
inheritance  "  as  the  representative  of  his  father,  undertaking 
all  the  duties  and  obligations  of  his  father. 

A  state  of  society  is  contemplated  as  lamiliar  to  the 
Galatian  Christians,  in  which  the  father  by  his  Will  ordin- 
arily nominated  a  term  when  his  infant  heir  was  to  come 
of  age.     This  does  not  imply  that  there  was  no  age  fixed 

*  See  p.  40  f.  ^  St.  Paul  the,  Trav.,  ch.  VI, 

5  See  above,  §  XXXI, 


392  The  Infant  Son  and  Heir. 


by  law  in  cases  where  a  Will  had  not  been  made;  but  it 
does  seem  to  imply  that  in  the  circle  of  Paul's  readers  the 
maker  of  a  Will  was  free  to  fix  such  age  as  he  pleased. 
It  is  known  that  Seleucid  law  differed,  from  Roman  law  in 
regard  to  the  legal  period  of  full  age,  Mitteis  ^  points  out 
that  in  Tyana  the  legal  term  for  coming  of  age  was  differ- 
ent from  the  Roman  :  he  ascribes  this  to  Greek  influence, 
but  probably  it  is  Anatolian  (and  South  Galatian)  custom. 

Further,  Paul  clearly  describes  a  state  of  society  and 
law  in  which  the  father  by  his  Will  appoints  two  distinct 
kinds  of  administrators  for  his  child,  so  that  the  infant 
owner  is  said  to  grow  up  under  the  rule  of  guardians  and 
stewards  {lirvrpoTToi  and  olicoviniot).  The  former  is  the 
regular  term  in  Greek  law  for  the  guardian  of  an  infant, 
appointed  by  the  father,  or  by  the  law  in  default  of  the 
father's  nomination.  It  was  also  the  regular  translation  of 
the  Latin  tutor. 

The  oikonomos  or  steward  is  less  easily  understood.  A 
state  of  the  law  is  implied  in  which  the  father  by  Will 
named  both  a  guardian  and  an  oikonomos  for  his  infant 
child.  Presumably  the  guardian  {liriTpoiro'i)  exercised  a 
more  complete  authority  over  the  infant  than  the  oikonomos, 
who  (as  the  name  implies)  merely  regulates  household  and 
business  matters  for  the  infant.  Now  in  Roman  law  that 
distinction  was  well  known  :  an  infant  was  under  a  tutor 
until  he  reached  the  age  of  fourteen,  and  thereafter  under 
a  curator  until  twenty-five.  But  in  Roman  law  the  curator 
could  not  be  appointed  by  the  Will  of  the  father.^ 

In   pure  Greek    Law,   as  for  example  at   Athens,   this 

^  Reichsrecht,  p.  107. 

'^  An  elementary  fact,  stated  in  any  manual  of  Roman  Antiquities 
or  Law:  see  e.g.,  Ramsay's  Roman  Antiquities,  p.  255  ;  Mitteis,  p.  218, 


The  Infant  Son  and  Heir.  393 

distinction  seems  to  have  been  unknown  ;  and  Paul's  words 
have  less  meaning  when  we  think  of  pure  Greek  manners. 
But  the  law  and  manners  of  the  Graeco- Phrygian  cities 
(and  of  the  Seleucid  cities  generally)  were  not  pure  Greek. 
They  were  Hellenistic,  having  the  form  which  Greek  ideas 
assumed,  when  they  went  forth  to  conquer  the  East  and 
were  inevitably  modified  in  the  process. 

Accordingly,  everything  becomes  clear  when  we  look  at 
the  Syrian  Law-book.  The  same  distinction  is  there  drawn 
as  in  Rome  :  a  child  is  subject  to  an  Epitropos  up  to  fourteen, 
thereafter  he  is  able  to  make  a  Will  and  dispose  of  his  own 
property,  but  the  practical  management  of  the  property 
remains  in  the  hands  of  a  curator  till  the  ward  reaches  the 
age  of  twenty-five.^  But  the  Syrian  law  differs  from  the 
Roman  in  permitting  the  father  to  appoint  both  epitropos  and 
curator  by  Will.  This  is  exactly  the  state  of  things  which 
Paul  speaks  of;  and  the  probability  is  that  the  distinction  of 
epitropos  and  oikonomos  dates  back  to  the  old  Seleucid  law, 
and  thus  persisted  both  in  Syria  and  in  South  Galatia. 
In  Syria,  however,  as  time  went  on,  Roman  law  affected 
native  custom ;  and  so  the  name  curator  was  substituted 
for  oikonomos . 

Thus,  once  more  we  find  that  we  are  placed  amid  Seleucid, 
and  therefore  South  Galatian,  not  among  North-Galatian, 
manners  and  law. 

1  The  Syriac  seems  to  borrow  the  Greek  term  in  one  case,  the  Roman 
in  the  other  (to  judge  from  the  German  translation  in  Bruns  and 
Sachau,  Syrisch-ROmisches  Rechtsbuch,  p.  5). 


394  T"^^  RMciiments  of  the   World. 

XLII 

THE  RUDIMENTS  OF  THE  WORLD  (Gal.  IV  3  and  9). 

As  in  the  world  of  business,  so  it  was  in  religion  :  while 
we  Jews,  the  heirs  and  sons,  were  children,  we  were  like 
slaves,  subjected  to  rudimentary  principles  and  rules  of  a 
more  material  and  formal  character.  But  when  the  proper 
time,  contemplated  by  the  Father  in  his  Diatheke,  had 
arrived  with  Christ,  then  we  all,  Jews  and  Gentiles,  receive 
in  actual  fact  the  inheritance  and  the  position  of  sons 
(which  previously  was  only  theoretically  ours,  as  we  could 
not  as  yet  fulfil  the  conditions  necessary  for  accepting  the 
inheritance). 

There  seems  to  be  here  the  same  transition  as  in  III  25 
f.  from  "we"  in  the  sense  of  Jews  to  "we"  embracing  all 
true  Christians,  Gentile  alike  and  Jew  ;  ^  and  Paul  goes  on 
to  explain  his  reasons  and  to  justify  the  transition. 

"Previously,"  sa5's  Paul,  "when  you  did  not  know  God, 
you  were  enslaved  to  false  gods.  But  now,  when  you  have 
come  to  know  God,  or  rather  when  God  has  taken  cog- 
nisance of  you  (for  the  change  in  your  position  is  due 
entirely  to  His  gracious  action  and  initiative),  how  is  it  that 
you  are  turning  back  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly 
elementary  rules,  to  which  you  wish  to  make  yourselves 
slaves  again  completely,  while  you  pay  respect  to  sabbaths, 
and  new  moons,  and  annual  celebrations,  and  sacred  years, 
as  if  there  were  any  virtue  and  any  grace  in  such  accidental 
recurrences  in  the  order  of  the  world.  I  am  afraid  that  I 
have  spent  trouble  and  labour  upon  you  in  vain." 

It  is  clearly  implied  that  there  was  a  marked  analogy 

1  See  §  XL. 


The  Rudiments  of  the    World.  395 

between  the  bondage  of  the  Jews  under  the  "  rudiments  of 
the  world  "  and  the  bondage  of  the  Gentiles  under  the  load 
of  ceremonial  connected  with  their  former  idolatry.  The 
Jewish  rudiments  are  contemptuously  summed  up  as  "days 
and  months  and  seasons  and  years " ;  and  each  of  these 
terms  was  applicable  in  startlingly  similar  fashion  to  the 
pagan  ceremonial  practised  in  Asia  Minor.  A  few  sen- 
tences, written  in  another  connection  and  still  unpublished, 
may  be  here  quoted  :  "  A  highly  elaborate  religious  system 
reigned  over  the  country.  Superstitious  devotion  to  an 
artificial  system  of  rules,  and  implicit  obedience  to  the 
directions  of  the  priests  (cf.  Gal.  IV  3-1 1),  were  universal 
among  the  uneducated  native  population.  The  priestly 
hierarchy  at  the  great  religious  centres,  hiera,  expounded 
the  will  of  the  God  to  his  worshippers.^  Thus  the  govern- 
ment was  a  theocracy,  and  the  whole  system,  with  its 
prophets,  priests,  religious  law,  punishments  inflicted  by  the 
God  for  infractions  of  the  ceremonial  law,  warnings  and 
threats,  and  the  set  of  superstitious  minutiae,  presented  a 
remarkable  and  real  resemblance  in  external  type  to  the 
old  Jewish  ceremonial  and  religious  rule.  It  is  not  until 
this  is  properly  apprehended  that  Galatians  IV  3-1 1  be- 
comes clear  and  natural.  Paul  in  that  passage  implies  that 
the  Judaising  movement  of  the  Christian  Galatians  is  a 
recurrence  to  their  old  heathen  type.  After  being  set  free 
from  the  bonds  of  a  hard  ceremonial  law,  they  were  putting 
themselves  once  more  into  the  bonds  of  another  ceremonial 
law,  equally  hard.  In  their  action  they  were  showing 
themselves  senseless  {uvotjtol,  Gal.  Ill  i),  devoid  of  the 
educated  mind  that  could  perceive  the  real  nature  of  things. 

^  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  I  134  ff.,  147  ff.,  94  if.,  etc. 


396  He  sent  forth  His  Son. 

There  is  an  intentional  emphasis  in  the  juxtaposition  of 
avoT]Toi  with  FaXuTai,  for  it  was  the  more  educated  party, 
opposed  to  the  native  superstition,  that  would  most  warmly 
welcome  the  provincial  title.  Hence  the  address  '  senseless 
Galatians,'  already  anticipates  the  longer  expostulation 
(IV  3- II),  'Galatians  who  are  sinking  from  the  educated 
standard  to  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  native 
religion '." 

Obviously  the  enumeration,  "  days  and  months  and  sea- 
sons and  years,"  is  merely  a  contemptuons  summary  of  the 
formalistic  side  of  Jewish  ritual  ;  and  there  is  no  implica- 
tion that  the  Galatians  were  actually  observing  at  the  time 
a  sacred  or  Sabbatic  year.  The  meaning  is  merely  "  are 
you  about  to  enslave  yourselves  to  the  whole  series  of  their 
feeble  and  poor  ceremonies  ?  " 

XLIII 

HE  SENT  FORTH  HIS  SON  (Gal.  IV  4). 

When  the  preparatory  stage  had  come  to  an  end  and  the 
world  was  ripe  for  the  new  development,  God  sent  forth 
His  Son,  born  of  a  woman,  born  under  the  Law,  to  redeem 
them  which  were  under  the  Law,  that  we  might  receive  the 
adoption  of  sons. 

It  seems  almost  incredible  to  the  outsider,  who  judges 
evidence  after  the  ordinary  methods  of  historical  students, 
that  this  verse  should  be  quoted  by  some  scholars  as  proof 
that  Paul  understood  and  believed  Jesus  to  be  plainly  and 
literally  "  the  son  of  Joseph  ".  Yet  the  opinion  has  been 
strenuously  and  confidently  maintained  that  Paul  was 
ignorant  of  any  idea  that  Jesus,  so  far  as  concerned  His  birth, 


He  sent  forth  His  Son.  397 

was  anything  else  except,  in  the  strictest  sense,  Joseph's  son. 
But  the  words  which  Paul  here  uses  plainly  imply  the 
following  points  in  his  belief  and  in  his  teaching  to  the 
Galatians : — 

1.  Jesus  existed  in  the  fullest  sense  as  the  Son  of  God 
before  He  was  sent  forth  into  the  world. 

2.  He  was  sent  forth  with  a  definite  duty  to  perform, 
retaining  the  same  nature  and  personal  character  in  the 
performance  of  this  duty  that  He  had  previously  possessed. 
That  is  proved  by  the  common  use  in  Luke  of  the  verb 
"  sent  forth "  (i^aTroaTeWo)),  and  its  natural  sense  as  the 
despatching  of  a  suitable  messenger,  qualified  by  his  per- 
sonal character  and  nature,  for  the  duty  to  which  He  is 
sent. 

3.  For  this  duty  Jesus  took  human  form  and  nature : 
the  words  'yevoixevov  eic  yvvatKo^;  express  simply  that  He 
became  a  man  among  men. 

4.  To  discharge  this  duty,  it  was  indispensable  that 
Jesus  should  be  subject  to  the  Law,  >in  order  to  show  in 
His  own  case  how  by  dying  to  the  Law  a  man  rises 
superior  to  it :  thus  His  death  was  the  purchase  of  men, 
paid  in  order  that  they  might  be  placed  in  a  position  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  adoption  as  sons,  open  to  them  by 
the  Diatheke  of  the  Father.  He  could  show  them  the  way 
only  by  traversing  it  before  them. 

It  is  clear  that  the  teaching,  so  briefly  summed  up  in 
this  verse,  is  to  be  understood  as  already  familiar  to  the 
Galatians  ;  Paul  is  merely  revivifying  it  in  their  memory. 
And,  in  the  discourse  which  Luke  gives  as  typical  of  Paul's 
teaching  in  Pisidian  Antioch  and  elsewhere  (Acts  XHI 
16-41),  exactly  the  same  teaching  is  set  forth  in  very 
simple  language — language  so  simple  that  its  full  meaning 


398  He  sent  forth  His  Son. 

hardly  impresses  itself  on  the  reader  until  he  compares  it 
with  the  Epistle.  Paul  there  quotes  "  Thou  art  My  Son  "  ; 
and  he  says  "the  Word  of  this  salvation  is  sent  forth  to 
us,"  using  the  same  verb  as  in  Galatians  IV  4.  The 
context  shows  that  "  the  Word  "  here  is  not  to  be  taken  in 
the  mere  sense  of  news  or  spoken  words,  prjixara  (as  Meyer- 
Wendt  explain) :  it  is  used  in  a  more  mystical  sense,  and 
it  forms  the  transition  from  the  simpler  expression  of  the 
Synoptics  to  the  language  used  about "  the  Word  "  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  That  Luke  employs  this  term  in  his  brief 
abstract  of  Paul's  Galatian  teaching,  must  be  taken  as  a 
proof  that  Paul  intentionally  expressed  himself  in  mystic 
language  as  to  the  relation  between  the  Father  and  the 
Son.  That  was  not  a  subject  about  which  he  spoke 
openly. 

It  has  often  seemed  to  me  that  this  was  the  subject  about 
which  he  "  heard  unspeakable  words  which  it  is  not  lawful 
for  man  to  utter"  in  the  vision  described  in  2  Corinthians 
XII  4.  Though  it  is  vain  to  seek  to  know  the  contents  of 
a  vision,  which  the  seer  pointedly  refuses  to  speak  about, 
yet  the  mystic  language  which  Paul  uses  on  this  subject 
may  justify,  perhaps,  a  conjecture  as  to  the  subject. 

The  peroration  of  the  address  at  Pisidian-Antioch  insisted 
on  the  marvellous  and  mysterious  nature  of  God's  action  in 
sending  forth  His  Son :  "  I  work  a  wonder  in  your  days,  a 
work  which  you  would  not  believe,  if  one  should  recount 
it  to  you  ". 


The  Address  at  Pisidian  Antioch.         399 
XLIV 

THE  ADDRESS  AT  PISIDIAN   ANTIOCH.^ 

It  is  evident  from  the  Epistle,  that  Paul  must  have  in- 
sisted orally  to  the  Galatians  on  the  preparatory  character 
of  the  Jewish  Law  ;  and  must  have  shown  them  in  his  first 
preaching  how  the  history  of  the  Jews  becomes  intelligible 
only  as  leading  onward  to  a  further  development  and  to 
a  fuller  stage.  That  is  the  whole  burden  of  the  address 
reported  in  brief  by  Luke.^  The  typical  words,  "  the  fulness 
of  time  "  (to  irXrjpoy^a  tov  y^povov,  Gal.  IV  4),  are  echoed 
in  the  words  of  that  address :  John  was  fulfilling  his  course 
{eTrXrjpov  TOV  Spofiov)  ;  the  Jews  fulfilled  the  words  of  the 
prophets  by  condemning  Jesus  {eirXrjpwaav  Kpivavresi)  ;  God 
hath  fulfilled  His  Promise  (iTrayyeXiav  .  .  .  eKireifkripoiKev). 

Further,  Paul  must  have  previously  laid  special  stress 
in  addressing  the  Galatian  Churches  on  the  fact  that  the 
Promise  made  to  the  ancestors  of  the  Jews  cannot  be  per- 
formed except  through  the  coming  of  Christ ;  that  Christ's 
coming  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  Promise  ;  that  Christ  is  the 
true  seed  of  Abraham  ;  that  men  cannot  be  placed  in  a 
position  to  receive  the  ratification  of  the  Promise  except 
by  being  identified  with  Christ  and  becoming  a  part  of 
Christ ;  and  that  in  this  way  only  do  they  become  fully 
the  sons  and  heirs  who  actually  succeed  to  the  inheritance. 

This,  which  is  the  burden  of  the  Epistle,  is  also  the 
burden  of  the  address :  "  ye  could  not  be  justified  by  the 
Law,"  "  through  (the  action  of)  Jesus  every  one  that  hath 
faith   is  justified."^      That  idea   is  urged  and    reiterated, 

^  See  §  XLIII.     This  section  was  suggested  by  Mr.  A.  Souter. 

2  Acts  XIII  16-41. 

3  Sia  TovTov,  i.e.,  Christ.     This  phrase  is  characteristically  Pauline. 


400  The  Address  at  Pisidian  Antioch. 

time  after  time,  in  the  Epistle  ;  it  is  specially  emphasised 
in  the  address  ;  the  word  in  which  it  is  expressed,  hiKaiooy, 
is  never  used  in  Acts  except  in  the  address ;  it  occurs  with 
extraordinary  frequency  in  the  Epistle  and  in  the  kindred 
letter  to  the  Romans,  but  is  rarely  used  elsewhere  by  Paul. 

The  address  twice  declares  that  Jesus  came  as  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  Promise,  vv.  23  and  32  f.  It  lays  stress  on 
His  being  of  the  seed  of  David  (therefore  ultimately  of 
Abraham).  It  is  plain  what  a  decisive  part  in  the  con- 
version of  Paul,  and  in  the  message  to  the  Galatians  pre- 
supposed in  the  Epistle  (see  §  XXX),  was  played  by  his 
coming  to  realise  for  himself,  and  his  declaring  to  others, 
that  Jesus  was  not  dead.  In  the  address  the  same  truth  is 
insisted  on  at  length  as  fundamental  in  the  message  which 
God  has  sent. 

The  word  "  inheritance  "  is  not  used  in  the  address  with 
the  same  prominence  as  in  the  Epistle ;  the  more  explana- 
tory and  the  more  Petrine  ^  "  remission  of  sins "  appears 
instead  of  it.  "  Inheritance  "  is  used  only  of  the  Promised 
Land  {KareKKTjpovojxrja-ev) . 

The  Epistle  points  out  how  the  hanging  upon  a  tree  was 
necessary  as  a  step  in  the  working  out  of  the  duty  for 
which  Christ  was  sent ;  and  the  address  describes  how, 
when  the  Jewish  leaders  "  had  fulfilled  all  things  that  were 
written  of  Him,  they  took  Him  down  from  the  tree".  Paul 
never  uses  this  expression  "  the  tree,"  ^vXov,  in  this  sense 
in  any  other  Epistle.  Peter  uses  it  twice  in  Acts  V  30  and 
X  39,  as  well  as  in  his  first  Epistle  II  24. 

We  notice,  in  this  connexion,  that  Peter  also  uses  the 
word  "fulfil"  (Acts  III   18)  in  a  way  remarkably  similar 

1  Acts  II  38,  V  31,  X  43  (Petrine) :  Paul  in  Acts  XXVI  18;  Col.  I 
14;  Eph.  I  7. 


Paul's   Visits  to  Galatia  in  Acts.  401 

to  that  which  Paul  emphasised  to  the  Galatians,  and  that 
his  addresses  there  and  in  V  30  fif.  are  remarkably  similar 
to  Paul's  Galatian  address.  Is  not  the  similarity  in  their 
view  the  reason  why  Paul  specially  turned  to  Peter,  and 
why  he  went  to  Jerusalem  at  first  with  the  single  intention 
of  interviewing  Peter  (laTopijaai  Kr)(f)dv,  Gal.  I  18)?  Finally 
the  resemblance  between  their  addresses  at  the  beginning 
of  their  career  finds  its  confirmation  at  the  end,  when 
Peter's  Epistle  is  so  instinct  with  Pauline  feeling  that 
Lightfoot  believes  (as  every  one,  surely,  must  believe)  he 
had  read  at  least  Rom.  and  Eph.  Hence  he  inherited  the 
care  of  Paul's  churches  and  the  services  of  Paul's  coadjutors 
(i  Peter  I  i  ;  V  12,  13). 

The  coincidences  between  the  Epistle  and  the  address  at 
Pisidian  Antioch  are  so  striking  as  to  make  each  the  best 
commentary  on  the  other.  It  may  be  said  in  explanation 
that  the  topics  common  to  them  are  those  which  are  funda- 
mental in  Paul's  Gospel  and  must  appear  in  every  address. 
But  there  is  no  such  close  resemblance  between  the  Epistle 
and  any  other  of  Paul's  addresses  reported  in  Acts,  and  the 
Antiochian  address  stands  in  closer  relation  to  this  than 
to  any  other  of  Paul's  Epistles. 


XLV 
PAUL'S  VISITS  TO  GALATIA  IN  ACTS. 

To  study  the  Epistle  properly,  we  must  here  briefly 
note  the  account  given  in  Acts  of  the  visits  to  the  Galatic 
Province. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  the  elaborate  study  of  the 

first  visit  given  in  the  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire  and 

26 


402  Paul's    Visits  to  Galatia  in  Acts. 

St.  Paul  the  Traveller.  We  note  merely  that  the  visit 
must  have  occupied  a  considerable  time.  No  statements 
of  time  are  given  in  Acts,  but  the  obvious  necessities  in  the 
evangelisation  of  four  cities  and  a  considerable  region  (Acts 
XIII  49;  XIV  6),  as  well  as  the  example  of  the  time 
spent  on  later  journeys,  show  that  the  estimate  of  twenty 
months,  given  as  a  minimum  in  those  works,  if  it  is  not 
correct,  should  be  increased  rather  than  diminished. 

The  evangelisation  of  South  Galatia  was  remarkably 
successful.  The  whole  of  Antioch  gathered  to  listen,  and 
the  Word  was  spread  throughout  the  whole  region  ;  a  great 
multitude  at  Iconium  believed  ;  at  Derbe  there  were  many 
disciples,  and  at  Lystra  Paul  was  treated  as  the  messenger- 
god  Hermes.  This  was  the  beginning  of  Paul's  work  among 
the  Gentiles  on  his  own  lines,  and  its  brilliant  success  en- 
couraged him  much  (Acts  XIV  27  ;  XV  3,  4,  12). 

On  the  whole  it  was  Gentile  Churches  that  were  founded 
on  that  occasion.  Many  Iconian  Jews  believed  ;  but  those 
of  Antioch  were  offended  when  they  saw  the  Gentiles 
trooping  to  hear  Paul,  and  their  opposition  and  pursuit 
of  him  were  relentless. 

It  has  been  used  as  an  argument  against  the  South 
Galatian  Theory  that  on  this  journey  Luke  makes  no 
reference  to  the  Province  Galatia.  But  he  mentions  its 
parts — I,  Pisidia,  2,  the  region  of  which  Antioch  was  centre, 
3,  the  region  of  which  Derbe  and  Lystra  were  the  leading 
(practically  the  only)  cities — just  as  in  many  inscriptions 
from  about  a.d.  80  onwards  the  Province  is  mentioned  by 
enumerating  the  regions  that  composed  it.  Such  was  the 
"  custom  of  the  country,"  and  Luke  always  follows  that. 

The  second  visit  to  the  South  Galatian  Churches  was 
deliberately  planned   in  order  to  "  see  how  they  fared ". 


Paul's   Visits  to  Galatia  in  Acts.  403 

We  must  understand  that  Paul  was  not  free  from  appre- 
hension lest  the  great  conflict  in  Antioch  and  Jerusalem 
might  have  roused  some  similar  movement  in  the  Churches 
on  the  great  highway  from  Syria  to  the  Aegean  Sea. 

It  is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  he  visited  Derbe,  Lystra 
and  Iconium  on  that  journey.  The  North  Galatian  theorists 
say  that  Paul  did  not  complete  his  intended  visitation,  and 
turned  away  from  Iconium  north-eastwards.  We,  on  the 
contrary,  hold  that  when  Luke  mentions  the  "  Region 
which  is  Phrygian  and  Galatic,"  he  means  the  part  of 
Phrygia  that  belonged  to  the  Province  Galatia — that 
being  the  most  pragmatically  accurate  designation  of  the 
region  of  which  Antioch  was  the  centre  (already  mentioned 
on  the  first  journey) — Paul  carried  out  his  intention  of  seeing 
how  all  his  Churches  fared. 

All  "  the  Churches  were  strengthened  in  their  ^  Faith  ". 
When  Luke,  after  telling  the  purpose  of  the  visit,  described 
so  much  more  fully  than  usual  its  result,^  must  we  not 
understand  that  Paul  found  need  for  strengthening  them  ? 
Luke  never  wastes  a  word  in  that  brief  History.  Already 
some  slight  tendency  towards  error  was  developing,  and 
was  corrected  by  Paul. 

On  that  second  visit  Paul  loyally  carried  out  the 
arrangement  made  in  the  Apostolic  Decree.  Though  it 
was  nominally  addressed  only  to  the  Province  of  Syria- 
Cilicia,  yet  he  treated  it  as  of  universal  application.  He 
was  eager  to  conciliate  the  Jews  by  conceding  as  much  as 
possible  to  their  prejudices.      He  could  not  permit  Gentiles 

1  This  seems  probably  the  real  meaning. 

2  Contrast  the  second  visit  to  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  hit  off  in 
such  brief  terms,  though  we  know  that  Corinth  at  least  had  been 
deeply  moved. 


404         Paufs   Visits  to  Galatias  in  Acts. 

to  practise  circumcision  ;  but  Timothy,  who  was  of  Jewish 
blood,  he  treated  as  a  Jew  in  this  respect,  and  he  took 
with  him  as  companions  only  Jews.  He  spared  no  pains 
to  attain  unity  and  concord  ;  and  the  Gentile  Galatians 
might  well  begin  to  think  after  his  departure  that  the  rite 
performed  on  Timothy  was  the  symbol  of  admission  to  the 
honourable  position  of  helping  an  Apostle. 

The  third  visit  (Acts  XVIII  23)  was  devoted  to  a  thorough 
and  systematic  survey  of  the  Churches  in  Central  Asia  Minor, 
in  order  from  first  to  last  "  stablishing  all  the  disciples  ". 
Here  again  our  principles  of  interpretation  (reached  in 
previous  studies  of  Acts)  compel  us  to  infer  that  the 
stablishing  of  the  Galatian  Christians  is  mentioned  because 
it  was  an  important  fact.  How  well  it  suits  the  Epistle  ! 
Paul  wrote  this  letter  to  the  Churches,  and  then  at  the 
earliest  opportunity  visited  them  and  stablished  all  the 
disciples.     The  fight  was  ended,  and  Paul  was  victorious 

But  according  to  the  North  Galatian  theory  Paul  did 
not  at  this  time  visit  South  Galatia  ;  they  leave  it  un- 
explained why  Luke  should  say  so  emphatically  that  Paul 
"  stablished  all  the  disciples,"  if  he  left  out  the  four  cities 
and  the  regions  in  which  they  were  situated.  In  fact  there 
is  no  explanation  ;  they  treat  this  as  one  of  the  many  "gaps" 
in  Acts,  whose  existence  they  assume  at  the  outset. 

The  inevitable  meaning  of  the  words  used  by  Luke  to 
describe  this  third  journey  has  been  recognised  by  Dr. 
Hort :  see  above,  p.  10.  Asterius,  bishop  of  Amasia, 
about  A.D.  400,  gives  the  same  explanation  of  the  route 
"  through  Lycaonia  and  the  cities  of  Phrygia  ".  Those 
who  study  Asia  Minor  geography  for  its  own  sake  must 
recognise  the  overwhelming  evidence  that  the  term 
"  Galatic  Region  "  {FaXaTiKr)  x^P^)  could  not  be  used  to 


Pauts    Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches.      405 

designate  North  Galatia,  but  only  the  territory  of  the  en- 
larged Galatia  :  see  p.  478. 

Thus  we  see  that  Paul  visited  the  South  Galatian  cities 
three  times,  and  finally  after  long  efforts  stablished  the 
Churches  permanently  on  the  Paulinistic  side. 


XLVI. 

PAUL'S  VISITS  TO  THE  GALATIC  CHURCHES. 

Nowhere  are  the  immediate  personal  relations  between 
Paul  and  the  Galatic  Christians  so  minutely  described  as 
in  the  verses  IV  12  ff.  Here,  therefore,  is  the  suitable 
place  to  collect  the  evidence  which  the  Epistle  affords  as 
to  the  previous  connection  between  them.  The  following 
points  have  been  generally  accepted  as  naturally  following 
from  the  words  used  by  the  Apostle.  It  is  better  to 
avoid  disputed  points  as  far  as  possible ;  and  therefore  I 
would  concentrate  attention  chiefly  on  the  facts  on  which 
Lightfoot  and  Zockler  are  agreed ;  for  they  may  be 
taken  as  specially  good  representatives  of  the  general 
opinion. 

Paul  had  already  visited  the  Galatic  Churches  twice, 
and  distinguishes  between  his  first  and  his  second  visit, 
IV  13,  "  I  preached  the  Gospel  to  you  the  former  time" 
(marginal  reading  of  Revised  Version). 

It  might  seem  sufficient  that  Lightfoot  and  Zockler  are 
agreed  in  this  interpretation.  But  the  point  is  occasionally 
disputed,  and  therefore  is  treated  in  a  Note,  414. 

Assuming,  then,  from  IV  13  that  Paul  had  twice  visited 
Galatia  before  he  wrote  to  the  Churches,  we  ask  whether 
any  further  references  occur  in  the  Epistle  to  the  two  visits 


4o6      Paul's    Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches. 

and  to  the  relations  between  him  and  the  Galatic  Christians 
on  each  occasion. 

On  the  first  visit  the  reception  given  the  Apostle  and 
his  Gospel  by  the  Galatians  was  extraordinarily  kind,  cordial, 
and  even  enthusiastic.  "  Ye  received  me  as  an  angel  of 
God,  even  as  Christ  Jesus."  They  were  hardly  satisfied 
with  treating  him  as  an  ordinary  human  being :  they  re- 
garded him  as  a  special  heaven-sent  messenger.  They 
congratulated  themselves  on  their  happy  lot  in  that  Paul 
had  come  among  them  (IV  15). 

On  the  second  visit  the  reception  had  not  been  so  abso- 
lutely cordial  and  enthusiastic.  Twice  in  this  letter^  he 
refers  to  the  fact  that  he  is  now  repeating  warnings  and 
reproofs  which  he  had  already  given  :  "  as  we  said  before, 
so  say  I  now  again  "  (I  9) :  "I  testify  again  to  every  man 
that  receiveth  circumcision  that  he  is  a  debtor  to  do  the 
whole  Law"  (V  3).  These  former  warnings  would  not 
have  been  given  unless  Paul  had  felt  they  were  needed. 
Moreover  the  words  of  IV  16,  "  Am  I  become  your  enemy 
because  I  tell  you  the  truth  ?"  must  refer  to  free  exhortation, 
not  unmingled  with  reproof,  during  the  second  visit.  Paul 
feels  that  there  has  already  come  into  existence  a  feeling 
among  the  Galatians  that  he  has  been  holding  them  back 
from  what  is  best  for  them  ;  and  he  regards  this  as  due  to 
former  plain  speaking  on  his  part,  which  can  only  be  the 
language  used  by  him  during  the  second  visit. 

It  is,  however,  also  clear  that,  on  the  whole,  the  second 
visit  was  a  successful  one.  "  Ye  were  running  well  "  (V  7) 
proves  that ;  and  moreover  the  Epistle  as  a  whole  indubi- 
tably implies  (as  all  interpreters  are  agreed)  that  the  bad 

^  As  Zockler,  p.  73,  points  out. 


Paul's    Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches.      407 

news  which  eHcited  the  letter  had  come  to  Paul  as  a  com- 
plete surprise.  He  left  them  running,  apparently,  a  good 
race  in  the  proper  course ;  and  the  first  news  that  he 
received  was  that  disaffection  and  change  were  rapidly 
spreading,  and  that  his  own  Churches  were  moving 
rapidly  in  a  retrograde  direction.^ 

A  certain  interval  had  elapsed  between  the  second  visit 
and  the  Epistle,  so  that  he  can  contrast  their  conduct  in 
his  absence  and  in  his  presence.^  The  length  of  interval 
needed  will  be  estimated  variously  by  different  persons 
according  to  their  conception  of  the  possible  scope  of  the 
words  "  so  quickly  "  in  I  6?  There  came  emissaries  (doubt- 
less from  Jerusalem  ultimately)  not  long  after  Paul's  second 
visit  ;  and  these  produced  a  marked  effect,  which  spread 
rapidly  from  congregation  to  congregation.  But  the  change 
began  some  time  before  Paul  heard  of  it ;  and  he  did  not 
learn  about  it  till  it  was  well  advanced. 

At  the  same  time,  while  Paul,  during  his  second  visit, 
was  speaking  very  freely  on  a  tendency  towards  Judaism 
which  was  already  perceptible  in  the  Galatic  Churches,  he 
also  used  words  or  performed  acts  which  were  taken  by 
some  persons  as  equivalent  to  an  admission  (i)  that  he 
regarded  circumcision  (implying  of  course,  observance  of 

1  Lightfoot,  p.  25  (who  puts  Gal.  late,  and  near  Rom.)  admits 
(as  he  was  bound  to  do)  that  Paul  at  Ephesus  was  in  regular  corres- 
pondence with  the  Galatic  Churches.  This  would  be  quite  inconsis- 
tent with  the  idea  that  a  schism  had  begun,  and  was  progressing 
shortly  after  he  left  Galatia,  for  he  would  have  learned  what  was 
going  on  in  the  Churches  (see  §  VI,  p.  254). 

"^Doch  scheint  nach  Gal.  IV  18  sett  des  Apostel's  Abreise  aus  Galatien 
immerhin  einige  Zeit  vergangen  zu  sdn ;  Zockler,  p.  72  ad  fin. 

'  Lightfoot's  view  that  the  interval  is  to  be  measured  from  the 
first  visit  seems  not  justifiable. 


4o8     Paul's   Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches. 


the  Law  as  a  whole)  as  incumbent  either  on  Christians 
generally,  or  at  least  on  those  who  were  to  attain  a  position 
of  importance  and  responsibility  in  the  Church  ;  (2)  that 
he  was  only  a  messenger  and  subordinate  of  the  original 
and  leading  Apostles  in  Jerusalem. 

The  former  of  these  two  misconceptions  is  clearly  re- 
ferred to  in  V  II,  "  If  I  still  preach  circumcision,  why  do 
the  Judaistic  party  persecute  me  ?  "  and  it  led  to  the  further 
misrepresentation  that  Paul  was  insincere  in  these  words 
or  acts,  and  used  them  only  to  curry  favour  with  a  party 
which  was  so  powerful  that  he  shrank  from  offending  it 
openly  (I    10). 

The  second  misconception  obviously  underlies  the  whole 
argument  in  chapters  I  and  II,  and  has  already  been 
considered  in  §  VIII. 

Probably  no  one  will  maintain  that  these  misconceptions 
were  caused  by  Paul's  words  and  acts  during  his  first  visit. 
The  Epistle,  as  a  whole,  from  first  to  last,  bears  on  its 
face  the  plain  intention  to  bring  back  the  Galatic  Chris- 
tians to  their  first  frame  of  mind.  "  They  began  spirit- 
ually, they  seek  to  complete  their  religious  course  by 
physical  ritual."     On  this  see  §   VIII. 

The  historical  inferences  from  the  Epistle  as  to  Paul's 
relations  to  the  Galatic  Churches  are,  then,  clear.  His 
first  visit  had  been  one  of  unclouded  and  brilliant  success, 
calculated  to  give  extraordinary  encouragement  to  the 
non-Jewish  Christians  everywhere.  A  new  step  had  been 
taken,  and  it  was  entirely  confirmed  by  the  manifest  signs 
of  God's  favour.  God  had  supplied  to  them  the  Spirit ; 
He  had  "  wrought  miracles  among  them  "  ;  and  all  this  had 
resulted,  not  from  their  "  performing  any  part  of  the  Jewish 
ritual,"  but  purely  from  "  the  willing  hearing  which  comes 


PanVs    Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches.      409 

of  Faith  "  ^  (III  2  and  5).  That  was  the  confirmation  which 
had  defended  Peter's  action  in  the  case  of  Cornelius  :  "  The 
Spirit  fell  on  all  them  which  heard  the  word  :  and  the 
champions  of  circumcision  were  amazed  because  that  on 
the  Gentiles  also  was  poured  out  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit " 
(Acts  X  44,  45). 

Now  at  what  point  in  the  narrative  of  Acts  does  such  a 
stage  of  the  great  question  naturally  fall  ?  Here  we  have 
a  Gentile  province,  in  the  heart  of  Asia  Minor,  evangelised  ; 
and  at  once  the  Divine  Spirit,  by  manifest,  indubitable, 
external  signs — signs  which  were  clearly  displayed  to  the 
senses  of  every  onlooker — is  imparted  to  them  and  recog- 
nised generally  as  dwelling  among  them.  It  is  obvious 
that  this  is  the  precise  stage  which  was  made  known  by 
Paul  and  Barnabas  to  the  Christians  of  Phoenicia  and 
Samaria,  when  they  "declared  the  conversion  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  caused  great  joy  to  all  the  brethren  "  (Acts 
XV  3).  It  was  an  epoch-making  step  ;  and,  if  this  step  in 
advance  resulted  soon  afterwards  in  those  Galatic  Churches 
retrogressing  into  Judaism,  the  blow  to  Paul's  gospel  would 
have  been  most  severe  and  probably  fatal.  The  very 
importance  of  the  step,  the  joy  that  it  caused  to  the  non- 
Hebrew  Churches,  made  the  possible  defection  of  those 
Galatic  Churches  a  crisis  of  the  gravest  character.  From 
Acts  we  see  what  an  epoch-making  step  was  taken  when 
the  South  Galatian  Churches  were  converted.  From  the 
Epistle  we  gather  what  a  serious  crisis  it  was  to  Paul 
when  the  Churches  of  Galatia  showed  symptoms  of  schism. 
Why  suppose  that  the  Churches  in  South  Galatia  are  not 
"  Churches  of  Galatia "  ?     Why  try  to   make  an  artificial 

^This  is  Lightfoot's  rendering.  Zockler  similarly  "  Aufnahtne  der 
evangelischen  Predigt  im  Glauben  ". 


4IO     Paulas   Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches. 

separation  ?  It  is  answered  that  Paul  could  not  call  his 
Churches  in  South  Galatia  by  the  title  of  the  "  Churches 
of  Galatia ".  Yet  it  is  admitted  that  only  a  few  years 
later  Peter  summed  up  these  Churches  in  South  Galatia 
among  his  Churches  of  Galatia.  If  Peter  used  about  A.D. 
64^  the  Roman  system  of  classifying  these  Pauline  Churches 
according  to  the  Province  in  which  they  were  situated — the 
invariable  method  of  the  Church  in  all  later  time — why 
could  not  Paul  classify  his  own  Churches  in  that  way  about 
53-57?  Whether  is  it  more  likely  that  Paul  the  Roman 
would  employ  the  Roman  principle  from  the  first,  or  that 
Peter  the  Palestinian  would  substitute  the  Roman  principle 
for  Paul's  non-Roman  system  ?     But  this  is  a  digression. 

Now,  as  to  the  second  visit,  we  have  seen  that  during  it 
there  were  some  signs  of  trouble :  the  ideal  harmony  that 
reigned  between  Paul  and  his  Galatian  converts  on  the 
first  visit  was  not  maintained  on  the  second.  At  what 
point  in  the  narrative  of  Acts  are  the  complications  of 
that  visit  most  naturally  to  be   placed  ? 

The  answer  cannot  be  for  a  moment  doubtful.  In  Acts 
we  have  a  picture  of  the  Church  as  it  passed  through  the 
stages  of  this  struggle  ;  and  the  second  Galatian  visit  clearly 
harmonises  with  the  stage  described  as  resulting  from  the 
apostolic  council.  Every  feature  of  the  second  visit,  shown 
in  the  Epistle,  is  either  expressly  attested,  or  natural  and 
probable,  in  Paul's  second  journey  through  South  Galatia 
(XVI  1-5). 

I.  With  the  constant  stream  of  communication  between 
Syria  and  the  West  that  poured  along  the  great  route,  it  is 
practically  certain  that  the  struggle  in  Antioch  would  rouse 

1  Our  argument  here  is  directed  against  scholars  who  admit  that 
date  :  for  my  own  part,  I  think  that  Peter  wrote  about  75-80. 


Paul's    Visits  to  the   Galatic  Churches.      4 1 1 

some  echo  in  the  South  Galatian  Churches.  There  was  a 
considerable  Jewish  population  in  that  country ;  it  was 
influential,  politically,  socially,  and,  above  all,  as  regards 
religion  ;  ^  many  of  the  pagans  had  long  been  to  some 
degree  under  the  influence  of  Jewish  ideas.  There  were 
Jews  in  the  new  Churches,  though  the  mass  were  converted 
pagans. 

Moreover,  it  is  natural  that  some  tendency  towards 
Judaic  ceremonies  should  exist  from  beforehand  among 
many  of  the  converts  :  indeed,  it  was  inevitable  that  this 
should  be  so.  They  had  of  old  been  influenced  by  the 
impressive  character  of  the  Jewish  faith  ;  they  heard  the 
Gospel  first  in  the  synagogue;  and  Paul's  arguments  were 
regularly  drawn  from  the  Jewish  Prophets  and  Law.  This 
produced  a  tendency,  which  Paul  had  to  warn  them  against 
on  his  second  visit ;  and  the  man  who  had  just  come  from 
the  conflict  in  Jerusalem  and  Antioch  would  not  be  slow  to 
warn  them  of  the  possible  dangers  of  that  tendency.  The 
Phrygians  always  tended  to  Judaism,  pp.  193  ff",  449. 

2.  Paul's  words  and  acts  on  the  second  visit  had  created 
the  impression  that  he  regarded  circumcision  as  a  duty. 
Lightfoot  fully  recognises  ^  that  this  impression  was  due  to 
Paul's  action  at  Lystra  in  his  second  journey.  Acts  XVI 
2,  and  that  this  affords  a  distinct  argument  in  favour  of  the 
South  Galatian  theory.  He  circumcised  Timothy.  The 
act  was  seized  on  by  his  enemies,  and  was  certainly  open 
to  misconstruction. 

3.  His  words  and  acts  on  that  second  Galatian  visit  had 
also  been  construed  as  an  attempt  to  please  men.     Such, 

1  On  this  point  see  Sec.  i8  and  Citi&s  and,  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia, 
chap.  XV,  The  Jews  in  Phrygia. 

'^  See  his  note  on  V  11,  p.  206.     See  also  his  remarks  on  p,  29. 


412      Paul's    Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches. 

too,  was  sure  to  be  the  case  on  his  journey  in  South  Galatia, 
Acts  XVI  1-5.  It  was  natural  that  one  who  was  loyally- 
carrying  out  a  compromise  and  going  as  far  as  possible  in 
the  hope  of  conciliating  the  Jews  should  thus  be  misunder- 
stood. His  action  to  Timothy  was  easily  set  in  that  light. 
The  action  can  be  defended  ;  but  every  one  must  feel  that 
it  is  one  of  those  acts  which  need  defence,  not  one  whose 
propriety  is  obvious  and  indisputable. 

4.  His  conduct  on  the  second  visit  further  suggested  that 
he  was  merely  a  messenger  and  subordinate  of  the  apostolic 
leaders  in  Jerusalem.  Similarly,  on  his  journey  in  South 
Galatia,  he  actually  appeared  as  a  messenger,  and  "  de- 
livered them  the  decrees  for  to  keep,  which  had  been 
ordained  of  the  apostles  and  elders  that  were  at  Jerusalem  " 
(Acts  XVI  4)  :  the  misinterpretation  referred  to  in  the 
Epistle  was  quite  natural  as  a  corollary  from  that  action. 

5.  The  second  visit  was  successful  in  its  issue :  Paul 
seemed  to  have  eradicated  the  dangerous  tendencies. 
That  also  was  the  case  with  the  second  journey  through 
the  Churches  in  South  Galatia  ;  "  the  Churches  were 
strengthened  in  the  Faith"  (Acts  XVI  5).  The  words 
read  as  if  they  were  an  explanatory  note  on  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians.  And  that  is  the  character  of  the  narrative 
of  Acts  as  a  whole,  when  the  South  Galatian  theory  is 
applied.  The  facts  recorded  in  the  History  fit  the  Epistle. 
The  Epistle  is  elucidated  throughout  by  the  History. 

Now,  let  any  one  attempt  to  do  this  for  the  North 
Galatian  theory.  It  is  admittedly  impossible.  The  one 
authority  does  not  fit  the  other.  The  events  and  emotions 
recorded  in  Acts  XVI  do  not  suit  the  first  visit,  those 
recorded  in  Acts  XVIII  do  not  suit  the  second  visit,  as 
these  visits  are  alluded  to  in  the  Epistle.      The   North 


Paul's    Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches.      413 

Galatian  theory  ends  in  that  pathetic  conclusion,  the 
refuge  of  despair,  that  the  most  striking  fact  about  the 
History  of  Luke  is  "  the  gaps  "  in  it.  And  the  inevitable 
inference  from  that  theory — an  inference  drawn  by  all 
its  adherents — is  that  the  author  of  that  History,  the 
intimate  friend  and  companion  of  Paul,  did  not  know  the 
Epistles  of  Paul  or  the  real  facts  about  the  Galatian 
Churches,  or  concealed  his  knowledge  of  the  facts. 

He  who  judges  from  Acts  must  expect  that  the  South 
Galatian  Churches  would  play  an  important  part  in  the 
struggle  for  freedom  on  one  side  or  on  the  other ;  and  that 
is  so  as  the  South  Galatian  theorists  read  the  Epistles  of 
Paul. 

But  on  the  North  Galatian  theory,  the  Churches  whose 
foundation  is  heralded  by  Paul  to  the  Phoenician  and 
Samarian  Christians  as  so  important  a  step  towards 
freedom  disappear  at  once  from  history :  they  play  no 
part  in  subsequent  events,  except  that  Paul  pays  a  passing 
visit  to  some  of  them  ^  in  XVI  1-5  :  though  they  lie  on 
the  main  track  ^  of  communication  by  land  between  East 
and  West,  yet  they  participate  in  no  further  stage  of 
the  great  struggle :  their  action  is  never  referred  to  by 
Paul  either  as  a  pattern  or  an  encouragement  to  his  other 
Churches :  his  first-born  spiritual  offspring,^  whose  birth 
was  celebrated  by  him  as  an  encouragement  to  distant 
peoples,  Acts  XV  4,  is  never  alluded  to  by  him  in  writing 

^  It  is  explicitly  maintained  by  some  North  Galatian  theorists  (and 
is  obviously  forced  on  any  who  try  to  work  that  theory  into  a 
geographical  possibility)  that  Paul  went  north  from  Iconium,  with- 
out going  westwards  as  far  as  Pisidian  Antioch. 

2  Except  Lystra,  which  was  ten  or  twelve  miles  off  the  track  in  a 
retired  glen. 

'  Compare  Gal.  IV  19. 


414     PcLurs   Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches. 

any  of  the  letters  that  have  come  down  to  us,  except  once 
to  tell  what  he  suffered  there.  The  place  they  might  be 
expected  to  fill  is  said  to  be  taken  by  a  different  group  of 
Churches  in  the  northern  part  of  the  same  Province. 

One  further  inference  from  the  Epistle  as  to  the  relations 
of  Paul  to  the  Galatians  remains.  It  is  evident  (as  Zockler, 
p.  73,  rightly  points  out)  that,  when  Paul  was  writing,  the 
schism  was  not  yet  completed.  It  was  only  in  process 
(I  6).  The  whole  of  Paul's  appeal  in  the  Epistle  is  directed 
to  prevent  a  process  which  is  going  on,  not  to  undo  what 
has  already  been  completed.  The  "little  leaven  is  leaven- 
ing the  whole  "  ;  but  it  may  be  removed  in  time  to  prevent 
the  worst  and  irretrievable  consequences.  Especially  (as 
Zockler  emphasises)  the  Galatians  had  not  yet  accepted 
circumcision.  Paul  says :  "  If  ye  receive  circumcision, 
Christ  will  profit  you  nothing  "  (V  2).  Contrast  this  with 
IV  10,  "ye  are  observing  days  and  months";  and  it  is 
clear  that  the  latter  step  has  been  taken,  and  the  Jewish 
ceremonial  is  commonly  observed,  but  the  more  serious 
step  has  not  yet  been  made. 

Note. — TO  irpoTepov.  Prof.  Blass^  has  recently  added  his 
weighty  authority  to  the  opposite  view — viz.,  that  to 
Trporepov  here  merely  means  "  at  a  former  time ".  Light- 
foot's  note  seems  to  me  to  show  beyond  question  the 
fallacy  of  this  view,  which  he  carefully  considers  and 
dismisses.  His  argument  is  elucidated  and  confirmed  by 
the  two  following  considerations. 

{a)  On  the  opposite  side  i  Timothy  I  13  is  quoted  as 
a  case  in   which   Paul   uses   ro  irporepov  in   the  sense   of 

1  Grammatik  des  N.T.  Griech,  p.  34. 


Paul's   Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches,     415 

"  formerly ".  Lightfoot,  however,  sees  what  escapes  his 
opponents — that  this  is  not  a  parallel  case.  In  i  Timothy 
I  13^  TO  irpoTepov  materially  influences  the  meaning  of  the 
whole  sentence;  it  means  "previously,  but  not  at  the 
time  in  question  "  ;  and  the  sentence  would  not  be  correct 
if  TO  Trporepou  were  omitted.  Thus  the  adverb  expresses  a 
direct  and  emphatic  contrast  between  the  earlier  and  the 
later  time. 

Now,  it  is  impossible  to  understand  that  in  Galatians 
IV  13  TO  Trporepov  indicates  such  a  contrast  as  in  i  Timothy 
I  13.  It  would  be  absurd  to  translate  "  You  know  that  it 
was  because  of  bodily  disease  that  I  preached  the  Gospel  to 
you  at  a  former,  but  not  at  a  later  time  ".  This  would  be 
meaningless  except  as  distinguishing  two  visits. 

Suppose  now  that  Professor  Blass  is  right,  and  that  the 
verse  only  means,  "  You  know  that  it  was  because  of  disease 
that  I  preached  to  you  at  a  former  time ".  The  adverb 
here  might  be  omitted,  and  the  meaning  would  be  as 
perfect  and  complete  as  it  is  when  the  adverb  is  expressed. 
Is  this  characteristic  of  Paul?  Is  it  even  permissible? 
For  my  own  part  I  cannot  admit  that  in  this  letter  a 
single  word  is  used  in  an  otiose  and  useless  way.  To 
irporepov  must  have  a  marked  and  distinct  sense — all  the 
more  so  because  it  occupies  the  emphatic  position  at  the 
end  of  a  clause.  As  Lightfoot  says  :  "  it  is  difficult  to 
explain  the  emphasis,"  except  by  interpreting  "the  former 
of  my  two  visits  to  Galatia  ". 

TTiCTTOv  fie  T]yrj(r(iTO  de'/xevos  fis  SiaKOviav  to  nporepov  ovra  0kd(T(f)rifiov  : 
"  He  counted  me  faithful,  appointing  me  to  His  service,  though  I  had 
previously  been  a  blasphemer  ".  Paul  had  ceased  to  be  a  blasphemer 
before  he  was  appointed.  If  to  TxpoTepov  were  omitted,  the  meaning 
would  be  that  he  was  appointed  while  still  a  blasphemer. 


41 6      PauPs   Visits  to  the  Galatic  Churches. 

The  only  objection  to  this  is  that  it  is  true  Greek  ;  and 
some  scholars  have  made  up  their  mind  that  Paul  and 
Luke  were  quite  unable  to  distinguish  between  a  compara- 
tive and  a  superlative. 

(^)  Again,  if  we  take  to  irporepov  here  in  the  bare  sense 
of  "  formerly,"  we  must  infer  that  Paul  had  preached  the 
Gospel  to  the  Galatic  Churches  only  once.  It  would  be 
absurd  in  itself,  and  is  wholly  irreconcilable  with  the 
historical  narrative  in  Acts,  that  Paul  should  claim  to  have 
preached  twice  by  reason  of  bodily  illness.  Here  he  dis- 
tinctly refers  to  one  definite  occasion,  one  definite  visit,  on 
which  sickness  was  the  reason  why  it  came  about  that  he 
evangelised.^  Therefore,  either  he  had  only  once  before 
"  preached  the  Gospel "  to  the  Galatians,^  or  he  must  make 
some  distinction  between  the  two  visits,  and  use  words 
referring  only  to  one  of  them  ;  and  the  distinction  can  lie 
only  in  the  adverb  to  TrpoTepov.  Sickness  was  the  cause  on 
the  former  occasion,  but  not  on  the  second. 

We  know  from  Acts,  alike  on  the  North  and  the  South 
Galatian  theory,  that  Paul's  words  can  only  refer  to  the 
first  visit,  for  his  second  visit  was  planned  with  the  firm 
resolve  and  intention  to  preach  to  those  Churches.  Why 
struggle  to  avoid  the  obvious  truth,  that  to  irpoTcpov  has 
its  plain  and  natural  sense  of  "  the  former  of  two  occa- 
sions ?  " 

^  Notice  the  aorist  fvr]yyeKL(Ta}irfv. 

2  Mr.  Vernon  Bartlett  takes  this  view,  placing  the  composition  of 
Galatians  at  Antioch  in  the  interval  between  Paul's  return  from 
Pamphylia  and  his  visit  to  Jerusalem  in  Acts  XV  3  ff.  He  thus 
avoids  one  difficulty;  but  to  rrpoTefioi/  remains  idle  and  unnecessary. 
According  to  Zockler,  the  same  date  was  advocated  by  Calvin,  and 
by  some  German  scholars. 


Cause  of  the  First  Galatian    Visit.         4 1 7 
XLVII 

CAUSE  OF  THE  FIRST  GALATIAN  VISIT. 

It  was  because  of  bodily  disease,  "  infirmity  of  the  flesh," 
that  the  Apostle  had  first  preached  the  Gospel  to  the  Gala- 
tians.  Taking  this  expression  by  itself,  we  see  that  two 
explanations  of  it  are  possible : — 

1.  When  I  was  in  your  country,  but  not  intending  to 
preach  there,  a  disease  caused  me  to  change  my  intention 
and  preach  to  you, 

2.  When  1  was  not  intending  to  enter  your  country,  but 
had  other  plans  of  work,  a  disease  caused  me  to  change 
my  plans,  and  thus  led  to  my  visiting  you  and  preaching 
to  you. 

No  third  explanation  seems  open. 

I.  The  first  of  these  explanations  has  been  adopted  by 
all  adherents  of  the  North  Galatian  theory.  It  is  perhaps 
not  absolutely  necessary  for  them  to  have  recourse  to  it ;  but 
as  they  have  unanimously  adopted  it,  we  need  not  discuss 
whether  the  other  explanation  would  not  be  open  to  them. 

Put  in  this  bare  and  severely  simple  form,  this  explana- 
tion seems  awkward.  It  is  not  at  first  sight  probable  that 
Paul  would  go  across  a  country  without  any  thought  of 
evangelising  there,  unless  there  were  some  distinct  impedi- 
ment. He  twice  crossed,  evidently  without  preaching  in  it, 
the  land  ruled  by  King  Antiochus  of  Commagene  and 
Cilicia  Tracheia.  But  that  was  not  Roman  territory,  and 
was  therefore  outside  of  his  plans  ;  ^  and,  moreover,  on  both 

^  As  Principal  A.  Robertson  says  in  Expositor,  Jan.,  i8gg,  p.  2  :  "I 
assume  that  the  evangeHsation  of  the  Roman  world  as  such  was  an 
object  consciously  before  his  mind  and  deliberately  planned  ". 

27 


4 1 8         Cause  of  the  First  Galatian    Visit. 

occasions  he  was  passing  on  to  carry  out  a  pressing  work 
among  his  own  Churches  (Acts  XV  36,  XVI  i,  XVIII  23). 
Again,  he  crossed  Asia  without  preaching  in  it,  but  his  plan 
of  preaching  there  had  been  expressly  prohibited  by  the 
Spirit  (Acts  XVI  6). 

But,  it  is  said,  when  he  was  at  Lystra  or  Iconium,  and 
found  that  his  plan  of  preaching  in  Asia  was  prevented,  he 
fornned  a  new  plan  of  preaching  in  Bithynia,  and,  as  he 
was  going  thither,  while  crossing  North  Galatia,  he  was 
detained  by  illness,  and  to  this  detention  "  the  Galatians 
owed  their  knowledge  of  Christ  " } 

But  the  road  from  Iconium  to  Bithynia  never  touches 
North  Galatia.  It  lies  in  Phrygia  as  far  as  Dorylaion,  and 
then  enters  Bithynia.  It  is  marked  out  by  nature,  and 
by  immemorial  use :  that  is  beyond  dispute.  If  Paul 
formed  at  Lystra  or  Iconium  the  plan  of  preaching  in 
Bithynia,  he  would  not  traverse  North  Galatia  as  he  went 
to  his  goal. 

When  this  undeniable  fact  is  pointed  out,  the  reply  is 
that  Paul  was  going  to  eastern  Bithynia  and  Pontus — "  the 
east  parts  of  Bithynia  and  of  Pontus  "? 

But  our  one  authority  says  only  Bithynia,  and  we  have 
no  right  to  add  Pontus  and  to  make  Paul  travel  to  Pontus, 
dropping  Bithynia  out  of  notice.  The  obvious  meaning  of 
our  one  authority  is  that  Paul,  prevented  from  his  first  aim 
of  evangelising  Asia  with  his  great  and  civilised  cities,  be- 

^  Lightfoot,  p.  22.  He,  however,  holds  (as  I  have  always  done) 
that  Paul  traversed  the  Galatic  region  before  he  touched  Asia  or 
learned  that  he  was  not  to  preach  there  :  see  p.  478.  Other  sup- 
porters of  the  North  Galatian  theory,  however,  take  the  view  stated 
in  the  text. 

'^Expositor,  Dec.,  1893,  p.  415. 


Cause  of  the  First  Galatian    Visit.         419 

thought  himself  of  the  nearest  country  to  it — Bithynia,  with 
its  great  and  civiHsed  cities  ;  Nicomedia,  Nicaea,  Caesarea, 
etc.  He  would  never  select  second-rate  remote  places  in 
the  far  corner  of  the  Roman  Empire,  such  as  Tion,  Sinope, 
and  Amisos.  There  is  no  conceivable  reason  why  he  should 
traverse  and  neglect  North  Galatia  in  order  to  reach  unim- 
portant towns  like  those. 

The  course  of  the  second  missionary  journey  is  quite  too 
extraordinary  on  this  supposition.  First,  Paul  aims  at 
Asia  ;  then  he  aims  at  Pontus  ;  then  he  falls  ill  on  the  way, 
and  proceeds  to  evangelise  North  Galatia,  founding  there 
several  Churches — a  process  which  requires  long  time  and 
much  travel.  Then  he  proceeds  to  carry  out  his  previous 
intention  and  goes  on  towards  Pontus  ;  and  in  doing  this 
he  finds  himself  Kara  ttjv  Mvaiav.  Whether  we  trans- 
late this  "  beside  Mysia  "  or  "  over  against  Mysia,"  it  is 
a  plain  impossibility,  for  the  traveller  going  from  North 
Galatia  into  "eastern  Bithynia  and  Pontus"  would  be 
going  north-east,  with  his  back  turned  towards  Mysia. 

But  it  is  needless  to  proceed,  as  I  might,  in  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  absurdities  in  which  this  hypothesis  is  involved. 

Those  who  cling  to  the  first  explanation  must  be  content 
to  recognise  here  one  of  those  "  gaps  "  in  the  narrative  of 
Luke  which  they  so  often  find.  They  maintain  that  the 
"  gaps  "  are  numerous  and  puzzling,  and  one  more  added 
to  the  number  will  not  be  a  serious  addition. 

2.  On  the  second  explanation  there  must  have  been 
some  occasion,  during  Paul's  travels,  when  he  changed  his 
plans  of  work  under  compulsion  of  illness.  He  twice 
changed  his  plans  on  the  second  journey — first  when  he 
entered  Asia,  and  next  when  he  was  approaching  Bithynia  ; 
but  in  both  cases  the  reason  is  distinctly  assigned  by  Luke 


420         Cause  of  the  First  Galatian    Visit. 

as  the  Divine  guidance  and  orders  ;  and  we  cannot  admit, 
with  Lightfoot/  that  the  same  action  is  sometimes  attri- 
buted to  Divine  command  and  sometimes  to  the  pressure 
of  external  conditions  ;  none  of  his  examples  will  bear 
examination  {St.  Paid  the  Trav.,  p.  154  f.). 

On  the  first  journey,  however,  there  was  an  occasion 
when  Paul  changed  his  plans.  The  scope  of  that  journey, 
as  originally  contemplated,  embraced  the  lands  which  were 
naturally  in  closest  relation  with  Syrian  Antioch,  viz., 
Cyprus  and  the  Pamphylian  coast.  So  long  as  these  were 
the  scene  of  work,  John  was  a  willing  companion.  But 
when  Paul  and  Barnabas  resolved  to  abandon  PamphyHa 
and  cross  Taurus  into  the  Galatic  Province,  John  left 
them,  and  left  the  work.  Luke  does  not  state  the  motives 
of  either  party  :  he  does  not  explain  either  why  the  two 
Apostles  resolved  to  go  to  Pisidian  Antioch,  or  why  John 
refused  to  go.  The  reasons  for  his  silence  we  can  only  con- 
jecture ;  but  two  causes,  both  of  which  might  be  combined 
in  his  mind,  seem  both  natural  and  adequate  ;  he  is  little 
concerned  with  personal  details,  and  he  did  not  desire  to 
dwell  on  an  occasion  when  John  had  played  a  part  which 
he  probably  afterwards  regretted,  and  which  deeply  wounded 
Paul. 

With  regard  to  the  situation,  we  may  regard  the  follow- 
ing four  statements  as  highly  probable  : — 

I.  There  was  no  express  Divine  command,  for  we  can 
hardly  believe  that  John  would  have  disobeyed  it ;  and, 
if  he  had  disobeyed  such  a  command,  Barnabas  would 
not  afterwards  have  urged  so  strongly  that  John  was  a 
useful  companion  for  a  similar  journey  (Acts  XV  37). 

1  On  Ga/.,  p.  125. 


Cause  of  the  First  G  a/at  tan    Visit.         421 

(2)  John  considered  the  move  into  the  Galatic  Province 
as  a  change  of  plan,  and  justified  his  refusal  by  this  plea. 
He  was  willing  to  go  to  Pamphylia,  but  not  across  the 
mountains  ;  the  former  sphere  of  work  had  been  contem- 
plated from  the  first,  the  latter  had  not. 

(3)  The  cause  that  made  Paul  and  Barnabas  change 
their  original  plan  must  have  appeared  to  them  strong  and 
compelling.  It  was  not  that  they  simply  began  to  con- 
sider the  north  side  of  Taurus  a  better  field  than  the  south 
side,  for  they  had  been  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
given  leave  of  absence  by  the  Church,  with  an  eye  to  a 
distinct  sphere  of  work  ;  and  mere  human  calculation  of 
superior  advantage  would  not  have  seemed  to  them  a 
sufficient  reason  for  changing  the  sphere.  It  was  not  that 
Pamphylia  was  found  to  be  a  hopeless  district,  because 
when  they  returned  they  preached  there.  There  was  some 
reason  which  made  work  in  Pamphylia  impossible  at  the 
time,  but  which,  afterwards,  on  their  return,  was  not 
operative. 

Accordingly,  we  see  what  was  the  actual  fact.  They 
changed  their  plan,  and  they  entered  the  Galatic  Province  ; 
but  the  reason  was  not  simple  desire  to  evangelise  there, 
it  was  some  other  compelling  motive.  Here  the  Epistle 
clears  away  all  doubt.  In  it  Paul  clearly  intimates,  as  his 
words  must  be  interpreted,  that  his  first  visit  had  been 
caused  not  by  a  desire  to  preach  to  the  Galatians,  but  by 
bodily  disease.     This  cause  satisfies  all  the  conditions. 

Thus,  the  way  in  which  these  two  accounts  mutually 
supplement  and  explain  one  another  is  a  most  conclusive 
proof  of  the  honesty  and  direct  simplicity  of  both. 

Other  points,  as  for  example,  that  Paul's  circumstances 
in  Pamphylia  were  such  as  to  bring  out  any  weakness  of 


42!^  The   Thorn  in  the  Flesh. 

the  system,  do  not  directly  arise  out  of  the  Epistle,  and 
have  been  sufficiently  treated  elsewhere.^ 


XLVIII 

THE  THORN    IN   THE  FLESH. 

From  the  Epistle  we  can  gather  something  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  disease.  Lightfoot's  discussion  of  the  subject 
is  excellent,  and  we  adopt  every  one  of  his  conclusions, 
except  his  final  opinion  that  the  disease  was  epilepsy,  and 
his  suggestion  that  "  the  meanness  of  his  personal  appear- 
ance (2  Cor.  X  10)  was  perhaps  due  to"  the  permanent 
effects  of  his  painful  malady. 

First,  the  disease  was  active  during  Paul's  residence  in 
Galatia,  and  yet  it  was  quite  compatible  with  long  journeys. 
That  is  implied  alike  on  the  North  and  the  South  Galatian 
theories.  The  disease  was  active,  because  the  Galatians 
saw  it  and  did  not  despise  the  sufferer;  it  is  implied  that 
the  Galatian  Churches  in  general,  and  not  some  single  one 
alone,  witnessed  the  Apostle's  condition.  Yet  he  was  able 
to  make  long  journeys  ;  on  the  North  Galatian  theory  he 
went  about  between  Ancyra,  Tavium  and  Pessinus,  then 
proceeded  towards  Bithynia  (or,  as  some  say,  Pontus), 
then  went  through  Mysia  to  Troas;  and  all  these  journeys 
must  have  been  made  very  quickly,  for  no  chronological 
system  leaves  free  a  long  period  for  this  work.  On  the 
South  Galatian  theory  Paul  went  from  Perga  to  Syrian 
Antioch,  and  then  to  Iconium,  etc.  These  journeys  need 
not  have  been  performed  with  the  speed  and  exertion  im- 

^  Church  in  Rom.  Emp.,  p.  63 ;  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  194  ff. 


The   Thorn  in  the  Flesh.  423 

plied  in  the  North  Galatian  theory,  but  still  one  of  them 
is  very  long. 

It  follows  that  the  disease  did  not  take  the  form  of  one 
single  attack  of  illness.  It  was  intermittent.  At  one  time 
Paul  was  prostrated  by  an  attack,  at  another  he  was  able 
for  considerable  exertion,  both  in  travel  and  in  preaching. 

Second,  the  disease  was  such  as  to  be  naturally  regarded 
by  the  people  of  Asia  Minor  with  contempt  or  loathing  ; 
but,  far  from  so  regarding  him,  they  received  him  as  an 
angel  of  God.  The  verbal  contrast  is  so  pointed  as  to 
suggest  that  the  disease  was  one  which  the  people  ordinarily 
regarded  as  due  to  the  direct  action  and  curse  of  God. 
We  need  not  understand  that  it  caused  any  loathsome 
external  effect ;  but  a  sufferer  was  usually  regarded  as  one 
under  the  Divine  curse  on  account  of  some  crime. 

Now,  the  inscriptions  show  that  one  disease  was  regarded 
in  Asia  Minor  as  due  to  the  immediate  action  of  God. 
These  show  that,  when  a  native  of  the  country  prayed  to 
the  god  or  goddess  to  avenge  him  on  his  enemy,  he  asked 
that  his  enemy  should  be  "  burnt  up  "  with  fever,  "  in  which 
strength  wastes  away  without  any  visible  affection  of  a. 
part  of  the  body.  This  kind  of  disease  was  understood  to 
be  caused  by  fire  sent  from  the  world  of  death  by  direct 
act  of  the  god,  which  consumed  the  inner  life  and  spirit  of 
the  sufferer."  ^  A  full  description  of  an  attack  of  fever, 
with  its  recurring  paroxysms  and  characteristic  symptoms, 
is  given  in  a  late  curse :  "  May  he  suffer  fevers,  chill,  tor- 
ments, pallors,  sweatings,  heats  by  day  and  by  night " } 

^  See  Expository  Times,  Dec,  1898,  p.  no;  comp.  Wiinsch  in  Corp. 
Inscr.  Att.,  Appendix,  p.  XII. 

^Wunch,  Sethianische  Verjluchungstafeln,  1898,  p.  7.  These  were 
found  in  Rome ;  but  embody  magic  of  indubitably  Oriental  type. 


424  The    Thorn  in  the  Flesh. 

When  Paul  was  among  the  Galatians,  this  disease  was 
"the  thing  that  tried  them  in  his  body";  it  tested  the 
reality  of  their  love  for  him  and  their  respect  for  him  : 
it  constituted  a  temptation  to  regard  him  as  a  person 
cursed  by  God,  But  they  stood  the  test ;  they  resisted 
the  temptation  ;  and  they  regarded  him  as  a  messenger 
come  from  God. 

Every  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  effect  of  the  fevers 
that  infest  especially  the  south  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  but 
are  found  everywhere  in  the  country,  knows  that  they  come 
in  recurring  attacks,  which  prostrate  the  sufferer  for  the 
time,  and  then,  after  exhausting  themselves,  pass  off,  leaving 
him  very  weak  ;  that  a  common  remedy  familiar  to  all  is 
change  to  the  higher  lands  ;  and  that,  whenever  any  one 
who  has  once  suffered  has  his  strength  taxed,  physically  or 
mentally,  the  old  enemy  prostrates  him  afresh,  and  makes 
him  for  a  time  incapable  of  any  work.  Apart  from  the 
weakness  and  ague,  the  most  trying  and  painful  accom- 
paniment is  severe  headache. 

Now,  the  tradition  about  Paul  was,  for  some  reason,  far 
more  closely  concerned  with  his  personal  appearance  and 
physical  history  than  was  the  case  with  any  other  Apostle. 
This  must  undoubtedly  be  due  to  the  immense  personal 
influence  that  he  exerted  on  Asia  Minor,  where  the  tradition 
had  best  chance  of  being  preserved  owing  to  the  very  early 
general  adoption  of  the  new  religion  in  several  parts  of  the 
country.^  His  personal  appearance,  his  age,  at  conversion 
and  at  death,  are  recorded  in  Asia  Minor  tradition,  and,  as 

1  The  Phrygian  saint  of  the  second  century,  Avircius  Marcellus, 
travelled  "  with  Paul  in  his  hands  "  ;  he  mentions  no  other 
Apostle  or  teacher  in  his  epitaph  {Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia, 
II,  p.  722). 


The   Thorn  in  the  Flesh.  425 

I  believe,  with  trustworthiness.  The  common  opinion, 
current  as  early  as  the  second  century,  was  that  the  extreme 
physical  pain,  which  he  describes  elsewhere  as  "  the  stake 
in  the  flesh,"  the  accompaniment  of  his  disease,  was  severe 
headache.  Lightfoot  rightly  recognises  that,  if  we  give 
any  weight  at  all  to  ancient  opinion,  we  must  follow  this 
statement,  which  was  current  in  the  second  century  and 
may  confidently  be  taken  as  forming  part  of  the  unbroken 
Asia  Minor  tradition. 

In  St.  Paul  the  Traveller  (p.  97  f.)  an  argument  is 
founded  on  the  remarkable  analogy  between  the  expression 
used  by  Paul  himself  to  describe  one  specially  prominent 
accompaniment  of  his  disease — "  a  stake  in  the  flesh" — 
and  the  words  which  rise  to  the  lips  of  several  persons 
known  to  me,  all  innocent  of  Pauline  prepossession  in 
describing  their  own  experience  of  the  headache  that 
accompanies  each  recurrence  of  chronic  malaria  fever — 
"  a  red-hot  bar  thrust  through  the  forehead  ".  In  corrobo- 
ration of  this,  we  may  quote  the  description  of  "  a  bad 
attack  of  malarial  neuralgia,"  given  by  the  South  African 
author,  A.  Werner,  on  p.  236  of  his  collection  of  stories, 
entitled  The  Captain  of  the  Locusts,  1899.  He  speaks  of 
"  the  grinding,  boring  pain  in  one  temple,  like  the  dentist's 
drill — the  phantom  wedge  driven  in  between  the  jaws," 
and  describes  the  acuteness  of  the  suffering,  in  which  every 
minute  the  patient  seems  to  have  "  reached  the  extreme 
point  of  human  endurance  ". 

Is  it  possible  to  have  more  convincing  analogies  than 
this  ?  A  similar  metaphor  rises  to  the  lips  of  quite  in- 
dependent persons  to  describe  the  sensation.  There  are 
perhaps  some  who  may  think  it  wrong  procedure  to 
imagine  that  Paul  was  really  describing  with  what  they 


426  The   Thorn  in  the  Flesh. 

might  brand  as  morbid  anatomical  detail  the  exact  species 
of  pain  that  he  suffered.  I  think  Paul  was  not  so  different 
from  the  ordinary  human  being  that  he  must  describe  his 
enemy  in  the  flesh  only  by  some  general  and  vague  ex- 
pression. Every  one  who  has  to  contend  often  with  any 
special  enemy  of  this  kind,  if  he  speaks  of  it  at  all,  tends 
to  use  some  phrase  about  it  that  reveals  his  own  personal 
experience.  Commonly  he  is  silent  about  it ;  but  if  he  is 
deeply  moved,  and  alludes  to  it  while  he  is  showing  his 
inmost  soul  under  the  stimulus  of  emotion,  his  expression 
lights  up  by  a  flash  the  physical  fact. 

That  is  the  case  in  2  Corinthians  XII  7.  There  is  no 
passage  in  all  Paul's  writings  in  which  he  is  more  deeply 
moved.  There  is  no  other  passage  in  which  he  shows  so 
much  of  his  inner  mind,  or  speaks  so  freely  of  his  private 
personal  experiences.  He  alludes,  among  these  experi- 
ences, to  his  secret  communing  with  the  Divine  nature  ; 
and  he  describes  the  counter-balancing  evil  at  once  an 
extremely  painful,  almost  unendurable,  suffering,  and  a 
serious  impediment  to  his  work.  These  are  the  two 
features  about  this  enemy  in  the  flesh,  on  which  the 
human  being  is  sure  to  insist.  It  is  "  a  stake  in  the 
flesh, — a  messenger  of  Satan,"   the  enemy  of  the  truth. 

When  we  take  this  striking  realistic  detail  in  conjunction 
with  the  strong  and  very  old  tradition  that  Paul  was  in 
this  expression  describing  the  fever-headache,  it  seems 
to  me  that  there  is  an  exceedingly  strong  case,  such  as  one 
could  hardly  have  expected  about  such  a  matter.  And 
this  is  clinched  by  the  superstition  current  in  Asia  Minor 
that  fever  was  the  special  weapon  hurled  by  the  gods  of 
the  underworld  against  criminals. 

The  theory  that  Paul's  disease  was  epilepsy  deserves  a 


The    Thorn  in  the  Flesh.  4^7 

word.  Appearances  are,  at  first  sight,  in  its  favour — the 
example  of  Julius  Caesar,  Napoleon,  Cromwell,  all  epileptics 
— the  fact  that  the  nervous  system,  when  working  at  its 
highest  pressure,  is  nearest  to  breaking  down.  But  if  we 
take  epilepsy  as  Paul's  trial,  then  we  must  accept  the 
medical  inferences  from  it.  It  follows  inexorably  that  his 
visions  were  epileptic  symptoms,  no  more  real  than  the 
dreams  of  epileptic  insanity.  In  fact,  it  is  the  visions 
which  give  probability  to  the  theory  of  epilepsy :  as  a 
distinguished  pathologist  says  to  me,  you  will  find  hundreds 
of  exact  parallels  to  Paul's  visions,  if  you  want  them  :  any 
lunatic  asylum  in  the  country  will  furnish  them  in  plenty. 
The  nerve-centres  of  sight  and  vision  are  close  together, 
and  naturally  affected  together,  when  the  system  is  on  the 
point  of  collapse.  The  temporary  blindness  that  followed 
the  first  vision  is  exactly  what  the  pathologist  expects  as 
the  sequel  of  an  epileptic  vision. 

The  theory  is  seductive.  But  are  we  prepared  to  accept 
the  consequences  ?  Paul's  visions  have  revolutionised  the 
world.  Has  the  modern  world,  with  all  that  is  best  and 
truest  in  it,  been  built  upon  the  dreams  of  epileptic  in- 
sanity?    Is  reason  the  result  of  unreason,  truth  of  falsity? 

Moreover,  we  do  not  find  that  Cssar  or  Napoleon 
attributed  their  greatness  to  their  epileptic  seizures.  But 
Paul  did  so  :  he  regarded  his  visions  as  the  crowning  glory 
of  his  life,  the  sole  source  of  his  knowledge  and  his  power : 
he  distinguished  absolutely  his  visions  from  the  "  messenger 
of  Satan,  the  stake  in  the  flesh  ".  Now  the  latter  has  much 
less  analogy  to  epileptic  seizure.  Lightfoot  shows  con- 
clusively that  "  the  stake  in  the  flesh "  must  be  some 
"  physical  pain  of  a  very  acute  kind  "  ;  but  pain  is  not  a 
feature  of  epileptic  fits.     The  premonitory  symptoms,  the 


428  The    Thorn  in  the  Flesh. 

aura,  sometimes  include  pain  ;  but  on  the  epileptic  theory 
the  visions  were  the  aura,  and  the  fit  followed. 

We  cannot  take  Paul  as  an  epileptic  lunatic.  The  only 
alternative  seems  to  be  to  take  him  as  afflicted  by  those 
seizures  which  were  regarded  as  the  messengers  of  the 
gods  of  the  underworld. 

XLIX 
SEQUENCE  OF  THOUGHT  IN  IV  12-20. 

The  expression  in  this  paragraph  is  rather  disjointed 
and  awkward.  It  can  be  best  explained  on  the  supposition 
that  Paul  is  here  catching  up  and  turning  to  his  own  pur- 
poses certain  phrases  used  by  the  Galatians. 

The  meaning  is  :  "I  beseech  you,  brethren,  set  yourselves 
free,  as  I  am,  from  the  slavery  of  ritual,  for  I  made  myself 
as  a  Gentile  ^  like  you  in  order  to  preach  to  you  ".  He  had 
put  himself  on  an  equality  with  them  ;  and  did  not,  like 
the  Judaistic  preachers,  claim  to  be  on  a  superior  level. 

"  You  say  with  truth  in  your  letter  that  you  '  do  not 
wrong  ^  me,'  but  are  conscious  how  much  you  owe  me, 
even  although  you  have  to  modify  your  attitude  towards 
my  teaching."  Paul  repeats  the  word  employed  by  them, 
and  dwells  on  the  thought.  "  I  bear  you  witness  that  you 
did  not  in  the  past  '  wrong  me '  or  act  unkindly  to  me.  On 
the  contrary,  as  you  know  well,  you  treated  me  more  like 
*  a   messenger  of  God,'   though   your   inherited   ways   of 

1  Compare  II  14. 

^  Lightfoot  says  of  these  words,  "  Possibly  the  true  explanation 
is  hidden  under  some  unknown  circumstances  to  which  St.  Paul 
alludes".     Paul  alludes  to  th,e  use  of  the  words  by  the  Galatians. 


Sequence  of  Thought.  429 

thought  would  naturally  have  made  you  regard  one 
afflicted  like  me  as  accursed  and  consumed  by  the  mes- 
senger of  the  underworld.  You  would  have  put  at  my 
disposal  what  was  dearest  to  you,  had  it  been  possible  to 
benefit  me  thereby. 

"  But  I  do  not  admit  your  explanation  that  you  *  are 
not  wronging  me  '  now.  You  are  indeed  wronging  me  : 
you  are  troubling  me  (VI  17).  What  is  the  reason? 
Evidently  you  regard  me  as  an  enemy,  that  you  treat 
me  so.  Is  it  because  I  spoke  the  truth  to  you  on  my 
second  visit,  and  warned  you  of  some  faults  among  you, 
that  you  now  look  on  me  as  an  enemy  ? " 

The  Galatians  also  seem  to  have  conveyed  to  Paul  their 
sense  of  the  extreme  zeal  and  interest  that  the  Judaistic 
missionaries  had  shown  in  their  welfare,  and  to  have  used 
the  phrase  "  they  take  a  keen  interest  in  us  "  {)Cpr)\ovcnv) . 
Hence  Paul  plays  upon  that  word,  "  They  '  take  a  lively 
interest  '  in  you,  as  you  say ;  but  they  do  it  in  no  good 
way.  In  reality  they  desire  to  make  you  think  that  you 
are  outside  the  pale  of  Jewish  pride  and  birth  and  privilege 
in  order  that  you  may  *  admire  and  envy  '  them,^  who  are 
within  the  pale.  It  is  not  true  zeal  for  your  interest  that 
prompts  their  action.  It  is  their  deep-seated  Jewish  pride 
which  refuses  to  regard  you  as  really  their  brethren  (where- 
as, as  I  said,  I  always  regard  you  so)  :  they  will  not  put 
you  on  an  equality  with  themselves  (as  I  do) :  they  seek 
to  mislead  you  into  the  belief  that  they  are  a  superior  class 
by  right  of  birth  (whereas  you  can  become  as  truly  sons  of 
God  and  sons  of  Abraham  as  they). 

"  I  regret  my  absence  and  inability  to  show  you  face  to 

1  He  repeats  the  word  ^r\K6ia  in  a  different  sense. 


430  Sequence  of  Thought. 

face  my  interest  in  you  ;  and  I  siiould  think  it  good  if  there 
were  always  some  one  present  with  you  to  take  such  interest 
in  you  (provided  it  be  in  a  good  way),  so  that  you  should 
not  be  dependent  on  my  presence  for  a  true  friend.  My 
own  children,  1  would  I  were  present  with  you  now,  and 
speaking  with  the  old  tone  of  mutual  affection,  not  in  the 
tone  you  have  forced  on  me  ;  for  I  am  troubled  about 
you." 

When  the  last  sentence  is  read  rightly,  it  is  seen  not  to 
spring  from  some  special  cause,  which  makes  it  impossible 
for  him  to  come  to  the  Galatians  now.  He  is  not  explaining 
that  he  cannot  go  to  see  them  (as  some  commentators 
imagine).  He  is  merely  regretting  that  he  is  writing  far 
away  and  in  an  unwonted  tone.  The  messenger  who 
carried  his  letter  would  announce  his  coming  visit. 

Read  thus,  as  catching  up  the  words  and  excuses  of 
the  Galatians,  the  paragraph  ceases  to  be  disjointed,  and 
becomes  simple.  But  whether  the  Galatians'  words  were 
reported  by  Paul's  informant,  or  written  in  a  letter  by  the 
Churches,  is  difficult  to  determine  (§  LIX).  Only  the  word 
"enemy"  was  evidently  reported,  not  written,  to  Paul. 


THE  ALLEGORY  OF  HAGAR  AND  SARAH  (IV  21,  V). 

This  paragraph  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole 
Epistle  to  understand  aright  ;  and  it  is  the  one  which 
would  probably  outrage  Jewish  prejudice  more  than  any 
other. 

The  children  of  Abraham  are  divided  into  two  classes  : 
the  descendants  of  Sarah  free,  and  the  descendants  of 
Hagar  slave.     The  Jews,  though  Sarah's  sons,  are  described 


The  Allegory  of  Hagar  and  Sarah.        431 

as  the  offspring  of  Hagar,  because  they,  like  Ishmael,  are 
descendants  by  nature  ;  the  Gentile  Christians  are  described 
as  the  offspring  of  Sarah,  because  they,  like  Isaac,  are 
descendants  by  promise  of  God. 

It  must  be  at  once  admitted  that,  if  this  passage  were  to 
be  taken  simply  in  its  relation  to  the  preceding  and  follow- 
ing parts  of  the  Epistle,  as  rising  spontaneously  in  Paul's 
mind  in  the  sequence  of  his  own  philosophic  argument,  it 
would  be  unnecessarily  insulting  and  offensive  to  the  Jews, 
weak  as  an  argument,  and  not  likely  to  advance  his  pur- 
pose of  changing  the  current  of  feeling  among  the  Gala- 
tians.  But  Lightfoot's  interpretation  of  verse  21  is,  "  Will 
ye  not  listen  to  the  Law  ?  " — explained  by  him  thus,  "  Ye 
who  vaunt  your  submission  to  the  Law,  listen  while  I 
read  you  a  lesson  out  of  the  Law" — and  if  we  follow 
this  interpretation,  we  must  regard  the  passage  as  arising 
in  the  free  development  of  Paul's  argument  within  his  own 
mind. 

The  rival  interpretation,  adopted  both  in  the  Authorised 
and  the  Revised  Version,  "  Do  ye  riot  hear  the  Law  ?  "  i.e., 
"  Is  not  the  Law  constantly  read  to  you  ?  "  (comp.  Acts 
XV  21  ;  2  Cor.  Ill  14),^  must  therefore  be  preferred.  This 
leaves  it  quite  open  to  take  the  passage  as  forced  on  Paul 
from  the  outside,  i.e.,  as  a  reply  to  an  argument  either 
used  in  Galatia  by  his  opponents  (and  reported  to  him  by 
Timothy),  or  employed  in  a  letter  sent  by  the  Churches  to 
Paul  (§  LIX). 

This  opposition  argument  must  have  taken  the  following 

1 1  quote  verbatim  Lightfoot's  exposition  of  this  interpretation. 
Zockler's  interpretation,  '*  Do  ye  not  obey  the  Law  ?  "  misses  the 
real  point  of  the  passage.  All  three  interpretations  are  grammati- 
cally possible. 


432        The  Allegory  of  Hagar  and  Sarah. 

form  :  The  Jews  are  the  true  sons  of  Abraham,  descended 
by  birth  from  Sarah,  and  granted  to  her  by  a  special  pro- 
mise of  God,  after  hope  of  offspring  in  the  natural  course 
had  ceased  ;  Gentile  Christians  cannot  be  regarded  as  in 
any  way  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  true  sons,  unless 
they  comply  with  all  the  obligations  imposed  on  the  true 
sons.  Further,  this  argument  may  perhaps  have  been 
united  with  the  anti-Pauline  view  (so  often  referred  to  in 
the  Epistle)  that  the  Gentile  Christians  stood  on  an  in- 
ferior platform,  but  could  rise  to  the  higher  platform  of 
perfection  (III  3),  as  true  sons,  by  accepting  the  law  and 
its  prescribed  ritual. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Judaic  emissaries  in 
Galatia  were  prepared  to  go  quite  so  far  as  this  argument 
implies  in  the  direction  of  admitting  Gentiles  to  the  full 
rights  of  sons  of  Abraham.  Hence  it  seems  more  probable 
that  this  argument  was  actually  stated  in  a  letter  by  the 
Churches,  explaining  their  views  and  doubts. 

Accordingly,  the  paragraph  may  perhaps  be  read  best  as 
quoting  from  a  letter :  "  Tell  me,  you  who  express  to  me 
your  desire^  to  come  under  the  Law,  do  you  not  know 
what  the  Law  says  ?  Do  you  not  hear  it  read  regularly 
in  your  assembly  ?  You  argue  that  the  Jews  are  the  true 
sons,  and  you  are  outsiders  ;  and  on  this  argument  you 
justify  your  desire  to  come  under  the  Law  ;  but  this  reason- 
ing is  not  supported  by  a  correct  understanding  of  the 
Scripture  as  contained  in  the  Law.  Hagar,  the  Arabian 
slave,  and  her  son,  the  slave — when  the  allegory  is  properly 
interpreted — belong  to  the  same  category  with  the  present 
Jerusalem  and  her  children  the  Jews,  all  enslaved  to  the 

^"eAoirfs  desiring,  and  not  merely  being  willing":  q.  XII  17. 
Westcott's  note  on  Hebrews  XIII  18. 


The  Allegory  of  Hagar  and  Sarah.        433 

Law  as  it  was  delivered  from  the  Arabian  mountain.  You, 
as  free  from  the  Law,  inheriting  through  the  free  Diatheke 
of  God,  are  classed  to  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  your  true 
city  and  your  true  home,^  of  which  all  we  Christians  are 
the  children.  Thus  you,  my  brothers,  are  children  of 
promise  (not  of  mere  natural,  fleshly  birth)  like  Isaac. 
You  are  persecuted  by  the  fleshly  children  now,  just  as 
Isaac,  the  child  of  promise,  was  persecuted  by  the  fleshly 
child,  Ishmael  of  old.    And,  just  as  the  slave  child  Ishmael 

was  cast  out  and  lost  his  inheritance,  so  now ^.     We 

Christians,  all,  Jew  like  me  or  Gentile  like  you,  my  brothers, 
are  sons  of  the  free  woman,  not  of  the  slave  woman." 

Thus,  as  we  see,  Paul  was  not  voluntarily  dragging  into 
his  letter  a  gibe  at  the  Jews.  He  was  saying  to  the  Gala- 
tians,  "  The  view  you  state  that  the  Jews  are  the^true  sons 
of  Abraham,  and  that  you  ought  to  make  yourselves  like 
them,  shows  that  you  do  not  rightly  read  the  Law.  The 
passages  to  which  you  refer  are  to  be  interpreted  alle- 
gorically,  not  verbally — by  the  spirit,  not  by  the  letter. 
Literally,  the  Jews  are  the  sons  of  Sarah ;  but,  in  the 
spiritual  interpretation,  you  are  become  the  free  woman 
Sarah's  children,  and  the  Jews  are  the  sons  of  the  slave 
woman." 

This  paragraph,  perhaps,  assumes  as  a  fact  of  law  and 
society  that  the  status  of  the  child  follows  the  mother,  not 
the  father.  The  illustration  would  be  meaningless  to  the 
Galatians,  unless  they  regarded  the  son  of  the  master  of 

^  The  contrast  between  an  earthly  city,  Derbe  or  Iconium,  where 
one  is  a  citizen  according  to  the  world,  and  the  heavenly  city,  the 
real  city  of  all  Christians,  is  implicit  here.  Similarly  it  is  implicit 
(and  disregarded  by  most  scholars)  in  the  epitaph  of  Avircius  Mar- 
cellus  {Cities  and  Bishoprics,  II  p.  724). 

^  Paul  does  not  express  the  analogy  fully. 

28 


434        '^^^  Allegory  of  Hagar  and  Sarah. 

the  house  by  a  slave  mother  as  a  slave.  Now  that  was 
not  Semitic  custom,  nor  is  it  natural  where  polygamy 
is  practised.  In  Mohammedan  sacred  law  such  a  son 
ennobles  the  mother.  Among  the  Hebrews  it  is  evident 
that  Dan,  Asher,  Ishmael,  etc.,  who  were  born  in  that 
way,  were  not  regarded  as  of  servile  station. 

But  among  both  Greeks  and  Romans  the  son  follows  the 
mother.^  The  inhuman  custom  prevailed  that  the  offspring 
of  slave-women  was  like  that  of  domestic  animals :  they 
were  all  mere  property.  A  similar  principle  probably 
existed  both  in  South  and  North  Galatia,  for  both  Galatian 
and  Phrygian  fathers  were  in  the  habit  of  selling  their 
freeborn  children,  and  are  therefore  not  likely  to  have 
regarded  the  son  of  a  slave  mother  as  anything  but  a 
slave. 

LI 

THE  CONCLUSION  (V  i). 

Paul  now  sums  up  the  argument  of  chapters  III  and 
IV  in  the  brief  conclusion  :  "  It  was  with  a  view  to  our 
full  freedom  (an(^  not  for  any  new  kind  of  slavery)  that 
Christ  has  set  us  Christians  free  from  the  bondage  of  sin.^ 

^  The  rule  is  familiar  in  Roman  law.  As  to  Greece  see  Mitteis 
Reichsrecht  und  Volksr.,  p.  241.  At  Edessa  or  Salonika  enfranchise- 
ments occur  in  inscriptions  of  "  my  slave  born  of  my  maidservant," 
Berlin  Phil.  Woch.,  May,  1899,  p.  635,  A  then.  Mitth.,  1893,  p.  415. 

^  The  marginal  reading  in  R.V.  (preferred  by  the  American 
Revisers)  is  undoubtedly  right.  Lightfoot  reads:  "sons  of  her 
who  is  free  with  the  freedom  with  which  Christ  set  us  free.  Stand 
firm,  then,  etc."  It  is  difficult  to  sympathise  with  Lightfoot  in 
discarding  our  text,  preferred  also  by  Tischendorf,  Weiss,  Zbckler, 
etc.,  and  in  saying  that  that  text  "  is  so  difficult  as  to  be  almost  un- 
intelligible ". 


Personal  Recapitulation.  435 

Stand  firm,  then,  and  do  not  submit  yourselves  anew  to 
the  yoke  of  slavery." 

The  rapid  variation  between  "  we "  and  "  you "  in  the 
passage  IV  21-V  i  is  full  of  meaning.  The  MSS.  vary  a 
good  deal  on  this  point ;  but  the  preponderance  of  evidence 
is  so  clear  that  all  the  chief  editors  adopt  the  same  text  so 
far  as  that  variation  is  concerned  ;  and  the  Authorised  and 
Revised  Versions  agree  with  them. 

At  this  point  Paul  would  naturally  proceed  to  the 
warnings  set  forth  in  V  13  ff.  ;  but  he  turns  away  for  the 
moment  to  a  digression,  V  2-12. 

LII 

PERSONAL  RECAPITULATION  (V  2-12). 

This  paragraph  is  personal  and  parenthetical.  The 
allusion  to  the  yoke  of  bondage  which  the  Galatians 
were  about  to  put  on  themselves,  leads  Paul  to  insist  once 
more  on  the  terrible  danger  of  the  step  and  the  ruinous 
consequences  that  must  follow  from  it.  The  paragraph  is 
very  closely  akin  to  III  1-6. 

You  know,  says  Paul,  that  your  salvation  comes  through 
faith.  The  proof  that  you  have  faith  lies — in  having  faith. 
But,  if  you  yield  to  their  persuasion,  and  suffer  yourselves 
to  be  circumcised,  you  cease  to  have  faith  in  Christ,  you 
cease  to  benefit  by  His  grace,  and  Christ  will  no  longer 
profit  you,  as  I  protest  and  reiterate  :  in  that  case  you 
put  your  trust  in  the  Law,  and  you  must  trust  to  it  alone, 
and  be  a  slave  to  it  in  its  entirety.^  In  itself  the  act  of 
circumcision  has  no  effect ;  it  is  nought ;  but  your  accept- 

iQn  this  see  §  LIII. 


43 6  Personal  Recapitulation. 

ing  it  now  is  a  proof  that  you  no  longer  trust  to  Christ, 
that  you  no  longer  have  faith. 

Lightfoot  is,  indubitably,  right  in  taking  the  emphatic 
"I,  I  Paul,"  ^  as  "an  indirect  refutation  of  calumnies". 
"  I,  I  Paul,  who  have  myself  preached  circumcision  forsooth, 
who  say  smooth  things  to  please  men,  who  season  my 
doctrine  to  the  taste  of  my  hearers,   I   tell  you,  etc." 

Verses  7-9.  How  has  this  awful  change  happened,  when 
you  were  running  the  race  so  excellently?  Who  has  had 
such  influence  over  you  ?  Who  has  bewitched  you  ?  I 
marvel  that  you  are  so  irrational  and  inconsistent  with 
yourselves  (compare  III  i).  You  may  be  sure  that  no 
person  who  has  thus  prevented  your  progress  can  be  a 
messenger  of  God  (as  you  once  thought  that  I  was).  It 
is  not  a  strong  party  that  has  thus  acted  ;  but  if  they  once 
establish  a  footing  among  you,  then,  you  know  the  proverb 
— a  little  leaven  ! 

Verse  10.  But  Paul  then  goes  on  to  express  his  firm 
confidence  in  the  judgment  and  faith  of  the  Galatians. 
They  have  been  momentarily  deceived,  but  they  assuredly 
will  not  permanently  entertain  different  views  from  those 
which  they  recently  had.  Thus  the  doubt  and  perplexity 
which  he  expressed,  IV  20,  the  apprehension  lest  his  work 
among  them  had  been  in  vain,  IV  11,  are  dissipated.  He 
knows  whom  he  is  addressing  ;  he  sees  into  their  soul ;  and, 
as  he  looks,  his  doubts  about  the  issue  disappear. 

Verse  10.  Punishment  must  follow  :  he  that  has  troubled 
the  Galatians  has  earned  his  reward,  and  must  submit  to 
it :  he  has  perverted  the  Gospel  of  Christ  (I  7),  and  will 

I'E-yo)  navXoy  is  stronger  than  "  I,  Paul  "  ;  to  use  eyw  in  Greek  is 
emphatic,  but  to  use  "  I  "  in  English  is  necessary,  and  carries  no 
emphasis. 


Personal  Recapitulation.  437 

pay  the  penalty,  however  great  and  important  a  position 
he  occupies  in  the  Church.  This  last  expression  favours 
Lipsius'  view  that  a  single  Jew  of  some  standing  had  come 
to  Galatia  and  caused  the  whole  trouble. 

Verse  11.  Being  thus  carried  back  to  the  same  topic  as 
in  the  opening  paragraph,  I  6- 10 — the  presence  of  the  dis- 
turber— Paul  glances,  as  in  that  passage,  at  the  charge  which 
had  wounded  him  so  deeply — viz.,  that  in  his  conduct  to 
Timothy  (Acts  XVI  3)  he  had  been  a  time-server,  shifting 
his  principles  to  suit  his  surroundings,  preaching  circumcision 
to  some,  though  he  refused  it  to  others.  As  for  me,  he  says, 
if  I  preach  it,  why  do  they  still  continue  to  persecute  me  ? 
Of  course,  if  I  am  preaching  it,  then  the  cross  which  so 
scandalises  them,  the  cross  which  is  their  stumbling  block, 
has  been  done  away,  and  they  have  nothing  to  complain  of 
in  my  preaching. 

Does  verse  10  point  to  punishment  from  man,  and  hint 
that  the  offender  should  be  dealt  with  publicly  by  the 
Galatian  Churches?  Surely  not.  The  judgment  is  left 
to  the  hand  of  God.  Then  in  V  12  Paul  recurs  to  this 
thought  of  the  punishment  awaiting  the  guilty  party,  "  I 
wish,"  he  says,  "  that  those  who  are  turning  your  moral 
constitution  ^  topsy-turvy  would  inflict  the  proper  penalty 
on  themselves,  and  cut  themselves  off." 

In  spite  of  the  almost  complete  unanimity  of  the  recent 
authorities  that  V  12  refers  to  a  dTfferent  kind  of  self- 
inflicted  injury,  viz.,  mutilation  such  as  was  practised  in 
the  worship  of  the  Phrygian  goddess,  1  venture  to  recur 
to   the   rendering  of  the    Authorised   Version.^      I    doubt 

^  'Ai/aa-Tarowrfy  carries  a  political  metaphor,  as  Lightfoot  rightly 
sees. 

^  So,  too,  the  Revised  Version  in  text. 


43 8  Personal  Recapitulation. 

whether  even  on  this  point — the  one  about  which  alone 
Paul  shows  real  anger — he  would  have  yielded  so  com- 
pletely to  pure  ill-temper  as  to  say  what  this  favourite 
interpretation  attributes  to  him.  It  is  true  that  the  ancient 
peoples,  and  many  of  the  modern  peoples  in  the  same 
regions,  resort  to  foul  language  when  they  express  anger, 
in  circumstances  where  Anglo-Saxons  have  recourse  to 
profane  language.^  It  would  be  mere  affectation  to  try 
to  deny  or  conceal  that,  on  the  current  interpretation,  Paul 
uses  a  piece  of  foul  language  in  the  ordinary  style  of  the 
enraged  Oriental,  who,  regardless  of  the  utter  unsuitability 
of  the  expression  employed,  heaps  insult  on  his  enemy, 
animate  or  inanimate,  man  or  brute,  seeking  only  to  be 
foul  and  insulting,  and  all  the  better  content  the  more 
he  attains  this  end. 

There  would  be  nothing  suitable,  nothing  characteristic, 
nothing  that  adds  to  the  force  of  the  passage,  in  the  act 
which,  on  the  ordinary  interpretation,  Paul  desires  that 
this  grave  Jew  of  high  standing  should  perform  on  himself. 
It  was  expressly  forbidden  by  the  Law  of  Moses.  The 
scornful  expression  would  be  a  pure  insult,  as  irrational  as 
it  is  disgusting. 

But  the  Authorised  Version  gives  an  excellent  sense, 


^  The  traveller  in  the  East  knows  that  the  use  of  profane  language, 
objectionable  as  it  is,  constitutes  a  really  great  step  in  civilisation 
and  refinement,  compared  with  the  unutterable  hatefulness  of  the 
style  of  objurgation  used  by  the  angry  Oriental.  The  same  was  the 
case  in  ancient  times;  and  it  is  almost  amusing  to  observe  how, 
from  ignorance  of  this  fact,  the  commentators  treat,  for  example, 
Catullus's  objurgations  against  those  whom  he  disliked  as  sober 
testimony  to  their  moral  character.  Catullus  would  have  said  much 
the  same  about  his  petorrita,  if  it  broke  a  wheel,  as  he  says  about  his 
enemy,  regardless  of  the  meaninglessness  of  the  expression. 


Personal  Recapitulation.  439 

adding  distinctly  to  the  force  of  the  paragraph.  The 
proper  punishment  for  disturbing  the  Church  was  that  the 
offender  should  be  cut  off  like  a  useless  member :  and  the 
wish  is  expressed  that  he  would  cut  himself  off.  But  the 
objection  is  that  this  sense  cannot  be  justifiably  elicited  in 
Greek  from  airoKo-meaQai :  the  word  in  the  middle  voice 
is  quoted  only  in  the  sense  of  "  mutilate  oneself,"  or  "  cut 
oneself  (in  mourning)  i.e.,  mourn  for".^ 

The  objection  has  some  ground,  but  is,  I  think,  not  con- 
clusive. The  word  aKuvSakov  in  V  1 1  suggests  ^  to  Paul  the 
words  of  the  Saviour  (Mark  IX  43)  iav  aKavSakiarj  ere  rj 
')(e[p  aov,  (iTTOKo-yfrov  avTrjv.^  He  therefore  continues  in  V 
12  the  thought  of  V  10 — I  wish  they  would  cut  themselves 
off.  If  he  presses  further  than  was  customary  the  use  of 
the  middle  form  of  the  verb,  he  is  not  out  of  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  the  middle  voice,  and  he  perhaps  trusted  to  the 
Galatians  also  recognising  the  reference  to  the  Saviour's 
words. 

But  those  who  maintain  the  customary  interpretation 
must  recognise  what  is  the  character  of  the  thought  and 
language  attributed  to  Paul,  and  should  not  try,  with  Light- 
foot,  to  explain  it  away  by  saying  that  this   mutilation 

1  In  the  latter  sense  the  simple  Konrtadai  is  usual :  the  force  of 
ano  is  lost  in  it. 

"^  The  fact  that  the  word  is  used  in  a  different  relation  in  the  one 
case  and  in  the  other  furnishes  no  argument  against  the  suggestion. 
In  V  10  the  thought  of  the  suitable  punishment,  severing  from  the 
Church  which  the  offender  has  wronged,  is  in  Paul's  mind.  In  V  11 
the  word  aKavbakov  comes  in.  The  juxtaposition  suggests  that  saying 
of  Jesus  in  which  a-Kavbakov  is  in  juxtaposition  with  cutting  off. 

*  Compare  V  45  (of  the  foot).  Matt.  XVIII  8  reports  the  same 
saying,  but  uses  iKKmreiv  in  place  of  anoKonretv.  Paul  thought  of  the 
saying  in  Mark's  form. 


440  Personal  Recapitulation. 

"  must  at  times  have  been  mentioned  by  a  Christian 
preacher".  Certainly,  he  sometimes  mentioned  it  along 
with  other  enormities  in  the  pagan  ritual ;  but  that  does 
not  justify  him  in  expressing  the  hope  and  wish  that  a 
fellow-member  of  the  Christian  Church  would  voluntarily 
commit  this  crime  upon  himself  Dr.  Sanday  sees  that 
the  expression  would  be  indefensible,  and  can  only  be 
regretted. 

LIII 

THE  WHOLE  LAW,  V  2-4 

It  is  remarkable  with  what  emphasis  Paul  urges  that, 
"  if  ye  receive  circumcision,  Christ  will  profit  you  nothing. 
If  you  accept  that  part  of  the  Law,  you  are  bound  to  obey 
the  entire  Law.  You  cannot  accept  part,  and  neglect 
part.  You  cannot  retain  the  Gospel  of  Faith,  if  you  trust 
to  part  of  the  Law."  Compare  this  with  III  10,  where  he 
insists  that  a  curse  is  pronounced  against  those  who  do  not 
continue  in  att  things  that  are  written  in  the  Law. 

This  seems  to  point  to  some  idea  among  the  Galatians 
that  they  might  accept  part  of  the  Law,  as  being  a  useful 
help  to  them  in  their  difficult  path  (see  p.  444  f ).  Paul 
would  hardly  urge  that  they  who  adopt  part  of  the  Law 
are  bound  to  adopt  the  whole  Law,  except  in  answer  to  a 
plea  of  the  Galatians  that  they  wished  to  adopt  only  part. 
They  who  are  already  bent  on  complete  acceptance  of  the 
Law  will  not  be  deterred  by  an  argument  that,  if  they 
begin,  they  must  go  through  to  the  end. 

Probably,  the  Galatian  idea  was  that  it  would  be  good 
for  them  to  cut  themselves  off  from  the  heathen  society 
around  them  by  a  marked  and  irrevocable  act,  constituting 


Freedom  and  Love.  441 

an  outward  sign  and  symbol  of  their  new  profession  ;  and 
they  found  such  a  sign  in  the  Jewish  rite.  They  may  have 
explained  this,  and  added  that  they  would  not  feel  bound 
to  accept  the  whole  Judaic  Law.  Unless  there  were  some 
such  idea  in  their  mind,  it  is  hard  to  see  any  force  in  Paul's 
emphatic  assertion  that,  if  they  begin,  they  must  go  on  to 
the  end. 

Very  often  we  conceive  Paul's  intention  clearly  only  when 
we  picture  to  ourselves  what  he  is  denying  or  replying  to. 

This  idea  in  the  mind  of  the  Galatians  must  either  have 
been  explained  to  Paul  in  a  letter,  or  reported  to  him  by  a 
messenger  (§  LIX). 

LIV 

FREEDOM  AND  LOVE,  V  13-15. 

Verse  13  resumes  the  subject  of  verse  i.^  "  Now,  as  I 
was  saying,  you  have  been  called  to  be  free,  but  do  not 
misunderstand  the  word  !  Do  not  misuse  the  freedom  as 
an  opening  for  sensual  enjoyment !  Rather  serve  one 
another  through  love.  You  desire  to  be  slaves  of  the  Law. 
Let  this  service  to  others  be  your  slavery,  and  remember 
that  for  you  the  Law  is  completely  fulfilled  in  the  observance 
of  the  one  principle,  Thou  shall  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 
Whereas,  if  you  show  malignity  in  word  or  deed  to  your 
neighbour,  the  issue  will  be  mutual  destruction." 

Very  characteristic  here  is  the  recurrence  to  the  word 
Freedom ;  the  most  remarkable  feature^  in  the  whole 
Epistle  is  the  prominence  given  to  the  idea  of  Freedom. 

1  The-particle  yap,  in  13,  is  not  to  be  treated  as  giving  a  reason  for 
something  said  in  the  last  verse.  It  indicates  that  the  proper  subject 
is  taken  up  again  after  a  digression. 


442  Freedom  and  Love. 

An  arithmetical  statement  will  make  this  plain.  The 
words  e\.evdepof;,  eXevdepia,  iXevdepoco,  occur  in  this  Epistle 
eleven  times  ;  but  in  Romans  they  occur  only  seven  times, 
in  the  two  Corinthians  eight  times,  and  in  all  the  rest  of 
Paul's  Epistles  twice. 

It  is  not  a  sufficient  explanation  to  say  that  the  idea 
was  forced  into  prominence  by  the  subject  on  which  Paul 
has  to  write.  The  same  subject  is  treated  at  far  greater 
length  in  Romans,  and  the  words  occur  much  less  frequently 
there  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  two  letters.  The 
idea  of  freedom  is  not  the  only  form  under  which  the 
struggle  against  Judaism  can  be  expressed  ;  one  might  also 
look  at  it  from  other  points  of  view.  The  prominence  of 
the  idea  is  something  special  to  this  Epistle. 

It  may  be  said  that  Paul  here  appeals  to  a  specially 
strong  feeling  in  the  minds  of  his  readers  :  that  it  is  because 
they  were  free  in  heart  and  in  aspiration  that  he  tries  to 
rouse  this  strong  characteristic  of  theirs  against  the  Judaistic 
propaganda. 

That  argument  does  injustice  to  Paul.  From  that  point 
of  view  one  will  always  misjudge  him.  If  he  simply  de- 
sired to  win  a  victory  over  Judaism,  he  might  appeal  to 
them  in  that  way ;  but  he  has  a  far  wider  view  and  aim. 
He  does  not  simply  select  such  arguments  as  will  weigh 
most  at  the  moment  with  his  Galatian  readers.  He  is 
content  with  no  victory  that  does  not  strengthen  the  whole 
mind  and  character  of  the  Galatians.  As  has  been  already 
pointed  out,  his  purpose  in  the  Epistle  is  not  to  frame  an 
argument  against  Judaism  :  he  tries  to  elevate  and  ennoble 
the  minds  of  the  Galatians,  so  that  they  may  look  at  the 
question  from  a  higher  and  truer  point  of  view. 

Therefore  he  does  not  seize  on  the  more  powerful  eniQ- 


Freedom  and  Love.  443 

tions  and  passions  of  his  readers,  and  try  to  harness  these 
against  Judaism.  He  tries  to  strengthen  their  weakness, 
and  to  make  their  minds  harmonious  and  well-balanced, 
so  that  they  may  judge  truly  and  wisely.  If  Paul  calls  the 
Galatians  to  freedom,  and  repeats  the  call,  and  presses  home 
the  idea  to  them,  it  is  not  because  they  were  already  speci- 
ally free  in  mind  and  thought.  It  is  because  they  were  a 
people  that  needed  to  be  roused  to  freedom — a  people  in 
whom  the  aspiration  after  freedom  was  dormant,  and  must 
be  carefully  fostered  and  fanned  into  flame. 

In  writing  to  the  Churches  of  Asia  and  Achaia,  he 
could  not  safely  speak  too  much  about  freedom  :  for  the 
Greek  influence  was  strong  among  them,  and  an  abuse  of 
freedom  degenerating  into  licence  was  the  besetting  weak- 
ness of  the  Greek  race.  He  had  to  summon  them  to 
obedience  to  rule  and  law,  instead  of  calling  them  to 
freedom.  It  was  more  important  to  insist  on  self-restraint, 
on  abnegation,  on  contentment,  than  to  stir  up  aspirations 
and  longing  after  a  new  state  of  society. 

The  contrast  between  the  insistence  on  rule  and  order  to 
the  Ephesians  or  the  Colossians,  all  strongly  Hellenised, 
and  the  preaching  of  freedom  to  the  Phrygians  and  Lyca- 
onians,  still  only  half  freed  from  native  ritual,  is  very 
characteristic  of  Paul's  versatile  sympathy. 

It  is  obvious  how  appropriate  and  necessary  this  topic 
was  in  addressing  a  people  like  the  Phrygians  and  Lyca- 
onians  of  the  South  Galatian  Province,  "just  beginning 
to  rise  from  the  torpor  of  Oriental  peasant  life,  and  to 
appreciate  the  beauty  of  Greek  thought  and  the  splendour 
of  Roman  power ".  ^  Lack  of  the  sense  of  individuality 
and   freedom  characterises  the  Oriental   mind   as  distin- 

'  5^  Paul  thi  Traveller,  p.  149. 


444  Freedom  and  Love. 

guished  from  the  Western.  That  sense  was  peculiarly 
lacking  in  the  Phrygians,  who  were  reckoned  by  the 
ancients  as  pre-eminently  the  nation  born  and  intended 
for  slaves  ;  but  what  is  called  the  Phrygian  character  by 
the  ancients  was  really  the  character  of  the  Anatolian 
plateau  as  a  whole  (apart  from  the  mountaineers  of  the 
coastward  rim),  simple,  easy-minded,  contented,  good- 
humoured,  submissive,  yet  capable  of  being  roused  to 
extreme  religious  enthusiasm  ;  a  people  possessing  many 
of  the  fundamental  virtues,  but  needing  intermixture  with 
a  more  sprightly  people  in  order  to  develop  into  a  really 
strong  and  good  race.  Mixture  and  intercourse  and  educa- 
tion had  planted  the  seeds  of  higher  individual  development 
among  them,  but  the  young  growth  needed  careful  tending. 
All  that  is  said  in  Chapter  VI  of  St.  Paul  the  Traveller 
on  the  situation  in  Antioch,  Iconium,  Derbe  and  Lystra 
at  the  time  of  Paul's  first  visit,  and  on  the  spirit  of  his 
work  there,  bears  on  this  subject.  The  Epistle  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  work  of  the  first  journey. 

So  he  leads  them  up  towards  freedom.  But  there  is  a 
danger.  Freedom  may  easily  be  misconstrued  and  abused, 
and  he  points  out  the  safeguard.  It  lies  in  Love ;  and 
he  quotes  the  Saviour's  epitome  of  the  whole  law  of  human 
conduct. 

It  would  add  to  the  pointedness  of  this  passage,  if  we 
could  suppose  that  the  Galatians  had  pleaded  ^  as  a'  sort 
of  apology  for  their  defection  to  Judaism,  that  they  felt  the 
need  of  some  helper  and  guide  as  they  struggled  along  the 
difficult  path  towards  Christian  perfection  ;  and  that  they 
found  such  a  guide  in  the  Law. 

^  Whether  actually  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Paul  or  through  the 
messenger  who  reported  the  situation  to  him  :  see  §  LIX, 


The  Spiritiial  Life.  445 

Paul  may  actually  be  quoting  that  plea,  when  he  says  in 
V  21,  "Tell  me,  ye  that  desire  to  be  under  the  Law"; 
and  it  may  have  suggested  to  him  the  explanation  of  the 
Law's  true  function  as  child-ward  (§  XXXIX),  He  fully 
sympathised  with  the  difficulty  which  the  Galatians  felt  ; 
and  he  therefore  shows  how  in  practice  the  effect  of  Faith 
was  gradually  perfected  in  the  character,  with  Love  as  the 
guide.  It  was  true  that  the  "  lusts  of  the  flesh  "  were  strong 
and  dangerous,  yet  the  Galatians  ought  not  to  look  to  the 
Law  to  tell  them  what  to  do  and  what  to  avoid.  Love 
will  eradicate  these  lusts  by  substituting  for  them  new  and 
stronger  motives  of  action.  Paul  has  already  shown  in 
III  2  ff.  that  it  is  unreasonable  to  look  to  the  Law  for  help 
in  perfecting  what  has  been  begun  by  Faith. 

A  single  enunciation  of  this  so  important  warning,  about 
the  danger  and  the  safeguard,  was  not  enough.  Therefore 
a  special  paragraph  repeats  and  enlarges  it  (§  LV). 

LV 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE,  V  16-26, 

"  What  I  mean  is  this  :  if  you  make  the  Spirit  your 
guide,  you  will  not  live  the  sensual  life.  For,  in  the  Divine 
plan,  the  spirit  and  the  flesh  are  ever  in  opposition  within 
your  minds ;  and  in  so  far  as  you  walk  by  the  Spirit  you 
are  freed  from  Law.  You  can  see  for  yourselves  what  are 
the  results  of  the  two  opposing  principles.  Around  you 
in  the  Galatian  cities  you  see  ^  the  vices  that  are  the  works 
of  the  flesh  ;  and  they  who  are  guilty  of  those  vices  shall 

^  ^avipa  is  in  an  emphatic  position  as  first  word  of  the  sentence, 
and  must  be  pressed  in  translation. 


446  The  Spiritual  Life. 

never  be  the  heirs  of  God,  I  warned  you  against  those 
evils,  when  I  was  last  among  you/  and  I  warn  you  now 
again. 

"  The  life  of  the  Spirit  matures  in  love  and  the  kindred 
virtues  :  where  they  rule,  Law  ceases.  If  you  are  of  Jesus 
Christ,  you  have  nailed  on  the  cross  the  flesh  with  its 
passions  and  lust,  and  died  to  the  life  of  sensuality.  There- 
fore, if  you  make  the  Spirit  your  guide,  this  must  be  seen 
in  your  daily  life.  To  take  a  special  example  of  the  general 
rule,  if  you  are  jealous  and  censorious  of  your  neighbours, 
you  are  not  living  the  spiritual  life." 

The  prominent  faults  of  South  Galatian  society  are  set 
before  the  readers  in  vv.  19-21.  These  are  the  faults  that 
they  saw  everywhere  round  them,  and  these  are  the  faults 
to  which  they  were  themselves  liable.  Paul  had  seen  this 
on  his  second  journey,  and  had  already  cautioned  them. 
His  first  journey  was  the  period  of  conversion,  followed  by 
organisation  :  on  his  second  journey  the  dangers  that  beset 
the  young  Churches  were  brought  painfully  home  to  him, 
and  he  warned  them  against  reproducing  under  a  disguise 
of  Christianity  the  faults  of  their  age  and  surroundings. 
Now,  once  more  he  strives  against  them.  He  must  strengthen 
their  whole  nature  and  character,  and  then  the  Judaistic 
evil  will  be  corrected  with  their  growing  strength. 

LVI 

THE  FAULTS  OF  THE   SOUTH  GALATIC  CITIES. 

In  the  list  of  fifteen  faults,  there  are  three  groups,  cor- 
responding to  three  different  kinds  of  influence  likely  to 

1  See  the  last  paragraph  of  this  section. 


The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities.     447 

affect  recent  South  Galatian  converts  from  paganism. 
Such  converts  were  liable  to  be  led  astray  by  habits  and 
ways  of  thought  to  which  they  had  been  brought  up,  owing 
to  (i)  the  national  religion,  (2)  their  position  in  a  munici- 
pality, (3)  the  customs  of  society  in  Hellenistic  cities.^  We 
take  each  group  separately. 

I.  Faults  fostered  by  the  old  Anatolian  religion.  These 
are  five  :  fornidation,  impurity,  wantonness,  idolatry,  sorcery 
or  magic.  The  first  three  are  usually  regarded  by  com- 
mentators as  springing  from  the  character  of  the  individuals 
addressed,  in  whom  sensual  passion  is  assumed  to  have 
been  peculiarly  strong.  But  more  probably  and  more 
naturally,  Paul  thinks  here  of  the  influence  exerted  by  their 
old  religion  in  patronising  vice,  and  treating  it  as  part  of 
the  Divine  life.^  The  subject  is  too  unpleasant  to  enter  on. 
Yet  to  understand  properly  the  position  of  the  new  religion 
in  Asia  Minor,  one  must  take  into  consideration  that  the 
old  religion  had  remained  as  a  relic  of  a  very  primitive 
state  of  society ;  that  it  consecrated  as  the  Divine  life  the 
freedom  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  ;  that  it  exhibited  to 
the  celebrants  in  the  holiest  Mysteries  the  relations  of  the 
Divine  personages,  who  are  the  emblems  and  representatives 
and  guarantees  of  that  primitive  social  system  amid  which 
the  religion  had  taken  form  ;  and  that  it  regarded  all  moral 
restraint  and  rules  as  interference  with  the  Divine  freedom. 
The  religion  of  the  country  was  actually  on  a  lower  level 

^  The  list  I  Corinthians  VI  9  ff.,  is  not  exactly  parallel,  but  near 
enough  to  be  called  by  Steck  the  model  after  which  this  whole  list 
of  fifteen  faults  in  Galatians  has  been  forged.  The  contrast  between 
them  is  remarkable.  The  Galatian  list  is  narrowly  defined :  the 
Corinthian  list  ranges  over  the  various  crimes  of  human  nature. 

2  Not  so  in  Col.  Ill  5  ff.,  where  he  is  expressly  speaking  of  the  evil 
tendencies  that  lie  in  human  nature  and  character. 


448      The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities. 

than  the  tone  of  ordinary  pagan  society.  Vice  was  not 
regarded  as  wrong  in  pagan  society :  it  was  regarded  as 
necessary — the  only  evil  lying  in  excess.  But  in  the  old 
religion  it  was  inculcated  as  a  duty ;  and  service  at  the 
temple  for  a  period  in  the  practice  of  vice  had  once,  appar- 
ently, been  universally  required,  and  was  still  imposed  as  a 
duty  on  individuals  through  special  revelation  of  the  Divine 
will.  This  extreme  was  looked  down  upon  with  contempt, 
but  without  serious  moral  condemnation,  as  mere  supersti- 
tion, by  the  more  educated  society  of  the  cities.  Yet  even  in 
the  cities  it  certainly  was  far  from  having  lost  its  hold  ;  and 
to  obey  the  Divine  command  and  live  the  Divine  life  at  the 
temple  for  a  period  caused  no  stigma  on  the  individual,  and 
was  actually  recorded  publicly  in  votive  offerings  with  in- 
scriptions.    See  pp.  40,  201  i. 

From  this  point  of  view  the  third  fault — aaeXyeca — is 
illustrated.  Lightfoot  explains  that  it  implies  something 
openly  insolent,  shocking  public  decency.  The  act  which 
was  most  characteristic  of  Phrygian  religion  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world  was  the  public  self-mutilation  practised  some- 
times by  votaries  in  religious  frenzy  (p.  38).  The  word 
daeXyeia  is  the  strongest  term  of  its  kind  in  Pauline 
usage ;  and  acts  like  that  public  mutilation,  or  those 
alluded  to  in  the  last  words  of  the  preceding  paragraph, 
merit  it. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  a  word  about  the  faults  of 
idolatry  and  magic.  The  latter  stood  in  close  relation  to 
the  native  religion ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  draw  t|ie  line 
between  religion  and  magic  in  the  numerous  class  of 
inscriptions  in  which  curses  and  imprecations  of  evil  or 
death  are  invoked  on  personal  foes  and  on  wrong-doers. 

We  shall  not  rightly  conceive  the  Asia  Minor  character. 


The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities.     449 

unless  we  remember  that  the  excesses  of  which  it  is  capable 
spring  from  religious  enthusiasm.  It  is  peculiarly  subject 
to  religious  excitement.  A  passage  of  Socrates,  that  careful 
and  unprejudiced  historian,  is  valuable  here,  as  illustrating 
both  the  Anatolian  character  and  the  influence  exerted  on 
it  by  Christianity.  He  says,  IV  28,  that  Phrygians  exercise 
stronger  self-restraint  than  other  races,  being  less  prone  to 
anger  than  Scythians  and  Thracians,^  and  less  given  to 
pleasure  than  the  eastern  peoples,  not  fond  of  circus  and 
theatre,  and  hating  fornication  as  a  monstrous  crime. 

These  were  the  people  that  eagerly  followed  Nova- 
tian  in  refusing  the  sacraments  to  those  who  had  after 
baptism  been  guilty  of  serious  sin.  Like  Paul's  Galatians, 
the  Phrygian  Novatians  were  eager  to  go  to  the  extreme 
in  religious  matters  ;  and  like  them,  they  tended  towards 
Judaism,^  and  made  Easter  agree  with  the  Passover.  It  is 
precisely  the  same  tendency  of  mind  that  caused  both 
movements :  not  fickleness  and  changeableness,  but  en- 
thusiasm, intense  religious  feeling,  the  tendency  to  extreme 
severity,  and  the  leaning  towards  the  Oriental  and  the 
Jewish  forms.^     See  p.  193  ff. 

^  Taken  as  representatives  of  the  northern  barbarians. 

^  Novatian  himself  showed  no  tendency  to  Judaism. 

'  One  might  trace  the  tendency  of  the  Phrygians  towards  Judaistic 
practices  through  the  intermediate  period,  and  in  other  parts  of 
Phrygia.  At  Colossae  Paul  had  to  correct  the  inclination  to  "  a 
feast-day,  or  a  new  moon,  or  a  sabbath  day  "(Col.  II  i6),  and  to 
point  out  wherein  lay  the  true  circumcision  (Col.  II  ii).  In  an  in- 
scription of  about  A.D.  200,  which  is  probably  Jewish-Christian,  the 
nime  Azyma  is  used  to  indicate  Easter  (see  Cities  and  Bish.  of 
Phrygia,  pt.  II,  p.  545  ff.  ;  and  there  is  now  more  to  say  about  this 
inscription  from  recent  discovery).  On  the  Judaic-Christian  inscrip- 
tions of  Phrygia,  see  Ciiies  and  Bish.  of  Phrygia,  part  II,  pp.  566, 
652,  f.,  674  f.,  700. 

29 


450     The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities. 

2.  Faults  connected  with  the  municipal  life  in  the  cities 
of  Asia  Minor.  Every  one  who  reads  this  enumeration — 
enmities,  strife,  rivalry  (so  Lightfoot),  outbursts  of  wrath, 
caballings,  factions,  parties,  jealousies — eight  out  of  fifteen 
— must  be  struck  with  the  importance  attached  by  Paul  to 
one  special  tendency  to  error  among  the  Galatians. 

Partly,  no  doubt,  the  Judaizing  tendency  would  lead  to 
division  and  strife,  for  we  can  well  imagine  that  it  was  not 
universal,  and  that  there  was  at  least  a  minority  that  con- 
tinued faithful  to  Paul  in  the  Galatian  Churches.  But  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Paul  was  thinking  of 
that  one  fact  only :  that  would  not  explain  the  striking 
prominence  of  the  idea.  He  is  here  viewing  their  life  as  a 
whole,  and  is  not  thinking  only  of  the  Judaistic  question. 

First,  the  rivalry  of  city  against  city  was  one  of  the 
most  marked  features  of  municipal  life  in  Asia  Minor.  The 
great  cities  of  a  province  wrangled  for  precedence,  until 
even  the  Emperor  had  to  be  invoked  to  decide  between 
their  rival  claims  for  the  first  place.  They  invented  titles 
of  honour  for  themselves  so  as  to  outshine  their  rivals,  and 
appropriated  the  titles  that  their  rivals  had  invented.  So 
in  the  Province  Asia,  Smyrna  and  Pergamos  vied  with 
Ephesus ;  in  Bithynia  Nicomedia  vied  with  Nicaea ;  in 
Cilicia  Anazarbos  vied  with  Tarsos  ;  and  in  Galatia  we 
maybe  sure  that  Iconium  vied  with  Antioch.    See  p.  ii8  f. 

As  Mommsen  says,  "  the  spirit  of  faction  here  at  once 
takes  possession  of  every  association  "  ;  and  again,  "  the 
urban  rivalries  belong  to  the  general  character  of  Hellenic 
politics,  but  especially  of  the  politics  in  Asia  Minor."  ^ 

But,  if  that  was  true  of  the  unregenerate  citizens,  had  the 

^  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire,  ch.  VIII,  vol.  I,  pp.  329,  357. 


The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities.     45 1 

converts  changed  their  nature  ?  Surely  not !  The  same 
characteristics  existed  in  them  as  before.  They  were  still 
citizens  of  Antioch  or  of  Tconium.  Throughout  Paul's 
Epistles  we  see  that  his  converts  had  not  changed  their 
nature,  but  were  still  liable  to  fall  into  the  errors  of  their 
pre-Christian  life.  We  may  feel  very  certain  that  there 
were  strife  and  wrangling  and  jealousy  between  the  Antio- 
chean  Church  and  the  Iconian  Church  about  precedence 
and  comparative  dignity. 

Second,  even  within  the  cities  there  was  room  for  jealousy 
and  strife.  There  was  in  Antioch  and  Lystra  the  great 
division  between  Roman  or  Latin  citizens  of  the  Colonia 
and  the  incolce  or  native  dwellers  :  the  burning  subject  of 
inequality  of  rights  was  always  close  at  hand.  We  may 
be  sure  that  there  were  both  Roman  and  non-Roman 
members  of  the  Church.  No  list  of  Galatian  Christians 
has  come  down  to  us  ;  but  the  Colony  Corinth,  where 
Latin  names  form  so  considerable  a  proportion  ^  of  the 
known  Christians,  furnishes  a  pertinent  illustration.  In 
Iconium  and  Derbe,  where  no  Roman  element  of  any 
consequence  existed,  there  was  the  other  cause  (not  absent 
in  the  Coloniae)  of  difference  in  race — the  native  element, 
the  Greek  element,  the  Jewish  element.  Of  these  the 
native  element  was  probably  the  weaker  in  the  Churches, 
because  the  natives  who  were  familiar  with  the  Greek 
language  usually  reckoned  themselves  Greek :  in  fact  the 
Greek  element  consisted  mainly  not  of  settlers  from  Greece, 
but  of  those  Phrygian  and  Lycaonian  families  that  had 
adopted  Greek  manners  and  education  and  dress.^ 

1  Achaicus,  Crispus,  Fortunatus,  Gaius,  Lucius,  Quartus,  Tertius, 
Titius  Justus.     See  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  I,  p.  480. 

2  See  pp.  129  f,  180  f,  230  f. 


452      The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  at  Lystra  those  who  are  said  to 
have  spoken  in  the  Lycaonian  tongue  were  not  Christians, 
but  pagans  (Acts  XIV).  It  was  among  the  more  educated 
classes  that  Christianity  spread  most  rapidly  {St.  Paul  the 
Trav.,  p.  133  f.). 

With  these  causes  at  work,  it  is  easily  seen  how  caballing 
and  jealousy  should  be  a  serious  danger  in  the  young 
Churches. 

As  Mommsen  says  again  of  Asia  Minor :  "  Rivalries 
exist,  as  between  town  and  town,  so  in  every  town  between 
the  several  circles  and  the  several  houses  ".  There  were  no 
great  political  or  patriotic  interests  to  absorb  the  passions 
and  powers  of  man,  and  so  they  frittered  away  their 
energies  in  petty  jealousies  and  rivalries  and  factions. 

Paul's  words  seem,  beyond  any  question,  written  with  an 
eye  to  the  ordinary  Graeco- Asiatic  city:  "Let  us  not  be 
vainglorious,  challenging  one  another,  envying  one  another, 
V  26".  Vainglory  and  pride  in  petty  distinctions  was  the 
leading  motive  in  municipal  life  ;  the  challenging  of  one 
another  to  competition  in  this  foolish  strife  was  almost  the 
largest  part  of  their  history  amid  the  peace  and  prosperity 
of  the  Roman  rule. 

But  that  is  not  the  type  of  the  North  Galatian  tribes  ; 
the  Gaulish  element  was  an  aristocratic  one,  and  such  are 
not  the  faults  of  an  aristocracy. 

If  the  Churches  were  thus  liable  to  import  the  old  urban 
rivalries  into  their  mutual  relations,  what  was  Paul's  part 
likely  to  be  ?  Would  he  not  impress  on  them  the  excel- 
lence of  unity,  the  criminality  of  faction  and  jealousy? 
Would  he  not,  even  in  small  things,  avoid  anything  and 
any  word  likely  to  rouse  their  mutual  rivalry  ?  Would  he 
not  class  them  as  one  body  of  Churches,  the  Churches  of 


The  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities.     453 

the  Province,  and  appeal  to  them  as  "  members  of  the 
Province  Galatia  ".  There  was  no  other  unity  except  that 
of  Christian  by  which  he  could  designate  them.  They 
lived  in  different  countries,  they  sprang  from  different 
races.  The  one  thing  in  which  they  were  united  was  as 
members  of  the  Empire,  and  their  status  in  the  Empire 
was  as  members  of  the  Province,  i.e.,  Galatae. 

But  when  I  pointed  out  that  this  term  Galatae  was  the 
only  common  name  by  which  Paul  could  address  the  four 
Churches,  some  North  Galatian  critics  replied  that  there 
was  no  reason  why  Paul  should  sum  up  the  four  Churches 
in  a  common  name.  Surely  that  argument  misses  the 
character  of  the  situation  ;  it  was  urgently  needful  to  sum 
them  up  as  one  body  by  one  common  name,  recognised 
equally  by  all  the  four  Churches. 

The  word  <^6voi,  introduced  in  most  MSS.  after  ^Qovoi, 
has  been  rightly  rejected  by  many  modern  editors  relying 
on  its  omission  in  the  Vatican  and  Sinaitic  and  some  less 
important  MSS.  It  spoils  the  picture,  and  is  merely  a 
scribe's  reminiscence  of  Romans  I   29. 

3.  Faults  connected  with  the  society  and  manners  of  the 
Graeco-Asiatic  cities.    These  are  two — drinkings,  revellings. 

No  comment  is  needed.  The  remains  of  the  later  Greek 
comedy,  and  the  paintings  on  Greek  vases,  show  how 
characteristic  and  universal  such  revels  were  in  the  Greek 
cities.  Komos,  the  Revel,  was  made  a  god,  and  his  rites 
were  carried  on  quite  systematically,  and  yet  with  all  the 
ingenuity  and  inventiveness  of  the  Greek  mind,  which  lent 
perpetual  novelty  and  variety  to  the  revellings.  The  Komos 
was  the  most  striking  feature  in  Greek  social  life.  Though 
we  are  too  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  Graeco-Phrygian 
society  to  be  able  to  assert  that  this  Greek  custom  flourished 


454      ^^^  Faults  of  the  South  Galatic  Cities. 

there,  yet  it  is  highly  probable  that  those  who  adopted 
Greek  manners  and  civilisation  adopted  that  characteristic 
feature,  the  Komos.  It  is  too  often  the  case  that  the  vices 
of  civilisation  are  the  first  elements  in  it  to  affect  the  less 
civilised  races  when  brought  into  contact  with  it. 

Thus  the  second  and  third  classes  of  faults  belong 
specially  to  the  Hellenising  section  of  Phrygian  society, 
springing  from  the  too  rapid  and  indiscriminate  assimila- 
tion of  Greek  ideas  and  Greek  tone.  The  first  class  of  faults 
was  most  characteristic  of  the  less  progressive  section  of 
society,  the  old  native  party.  Both  sections,  doubtless, 
were  represented  in  the  young  Churches  :  at  any  rate  the 
faults  were  always  blazoned  before  their  eyes  (p.  445,  note), 
and  the  customs  of  society  are  apt  to  exercise  a  strong 
influence  on  all  persons  unless  they  are  on  their  guard. 

LVII 

THE  UNFORGIVING  PHRYGIANS  (VI  1-5). 

The  opening  paragraph  of  chapter  VI  is  occupied  still 
with  the  same  subject  as  the  last  two.  Paul  is  looking 
quite  away  from  the  Judaic  controversy.  He  is  absorbed 
in  the  development  of  his  own  Churches  and  the  special 
faults  that  they  have  to  face.  He  saw  one  serious  danger 
in  that  Anatolian  people,  easy-tempered  and  orderly  in 
most  things,  but  capable  of  going  to  any  extreme  in  re- 
ligious madness.  Just  as  in  later  time,  "  that  unpitying 
Phrygian  sect "  was  apt  to  cry  : — 

Him  can  no  fount  of  fresh  forgiveness  lave 
Who  sins,  once  washed  by  the  baptismal  wave — 

SO  already  Paul  saw  their  tendency  to  unforgiving  condem- 


The    Unforgiving  Phrygians.  455 

nation  of  him  who  had  sinned,  and  warned  them,  "  Brethren, 
even  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  any  trespass,  restore  such  a 
one  in  a  spirit  of  meekness  ".    To  continue  the  quotation  :  — 

She  sighed, 
The  infant  Church  !  Of  love  she  felt  the  tide 
Stream  on  her  from  her  Lord's  yet  recent  grave. 

And  so  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  is  an  outline  of 
Phrygian  Christian  history  :  he  saw  what  was  the  one  safe- 
guard for  his  young  Churches,  and  he  urges  it  on  them,  in 
paragraph  after  paragraph — Love. 

And  what  have  the  North  Galatian  theorists  to  say  in 
illustration  of  this  most  characteristically  Phrygian  passage? 
Why,  they  are  struck  with  the  fact  that  a  man  in  Corinth 
had  committed  a  grave  offence ;  Paul's  appeal  to  the 
Corinthian  brethren  to  punish  the  offender  "  had  been 
promptly  and  zealously  responded  to  "  ;  and  "  he  had  even 
to  interpose  for  the  pardon  of  the  guilty  one  ".  And  there- 
fore "  the  remembrance  of  this  incident  still  fresh  on  his 
mind,  may  be  supposed  to  have  dictated  the  injunction  " 
to  the  Galatians  here.  Because  the  Corinthians  had  been 
severe,  therefore  the  Gauls  must  be  warned  not  to  be 
severe ! 

But  that  is  not  Paul's  method.  When  he  warns  the 
Galatians  against  a  fault,  it  is  not  because  the  Corinthians 
had  committed  it,  but  because  the  Galatians  were  prone  to 
it.  If  in  any  of  his  Epistles  Paul  is  wholly  absorbed  in 
the  needs  of  his  first  audience,  it  is  in  this  to  the  Galatians. 
But  so  it  was  in  all,  more  or  less,  with  the  exception  of 
Romans  ;  he  speaks  to  the  Church  in  Rome,  not  from 
personal  knowledge,  nor  from  report  of  their  special  cir- 
cumstances (as  to  the  Colossians),  but  in  preparation  for  his 
own  visit  and  from  his  experience  in  the  Eastern  Churcheg. 


456  The   Unforgiving  Phrygians. 

In  the  first  four  and  a  half  chapters  Paul  is  occupied 
specially  in  revivifying  in  the  Galatians  the  impressions 
and  the  teaching  of  the  first  journey;  from  V  13  onwards 
he  is  repeating  the  warnings  that  we  can  imagine  formed 
the  burden  of  his  preaching  on  the  second  journey.  But 
everywhere  he  feels  himself  on  Anatolian  soil,  and  is  speak- 
ing to  a  typically  Anatolian,  and  in  particular  a  Phrygian, 
people;  and  the  best  preparation  for  studying  the  adaptation 
of  his  words  to  his  readers  is  to  study  the  typical  peasant 
of  the  present  day,  as  he  presents  himself  to  the  travellers 
that  have  observed  him  with  sympathy  and  affection.  He 
is  called  an  Osmanli  now — he  does  not  call  himself  a  Turk, 
and  rather  resents  the  name — but  he  has  much  of  the  old 
Phrygian  character  :  pp.  33,  234. 


LVIII 

VOLUNTARY  LIBERALITY  TO  TEACHERS  (VI  6-10). 

This  paragraph  continues  the  subject  of  the  last :  Paul  is 
still  engaged  with  the  dangers  to  which  the  Galatian 
Churches  are  exposed  through  their  proneness  to  certain 
faults.  He  now  urges  them  to  treat  with  wise  liberality 
their  religious  teachers,  to  persevere  and  not  to  lose  heart 
in  beneficence  generally,  to  take  advantage  of  every  oppor- 
tunity of  doing  good  to  all  with  whom  they  are  brought 
into  contact,  but  more  especially  to  their  Christian  brethren, 
"  the  members  of  the  household  of  the  faith  ". 

This  is  only  a  further  exposition  of  what  is  involved  in 
the  "Whole  Law  for  the  Christian,  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself".  That  "Whole  Law  "  was  quoted 
in  V  14 ;  and  the  remaining  verses  have  been  devoted  to 


Voluntary  Liberality  to   Teachers.  457 

explaining  its  consequences  and  its  meaning  to  the  Gala- 
tians  in  their  special  situation  and  with  their  special 
temperament. 

The  duty  of  every  congregation  to  support  liberally  the 
ministers  of  the  Word  is  mentioned,  not  merely  to  the 
Galatians  here,  but  also  to  the  Corinthians  (i  Cor  IX  11  ; 
2  Cor.  XI  7  f.),  to  the  Philippians  (IV  10  f.),  to  the  Thes- 
salonians  (i  Thess.  116,  9),  to  the  Asian  Churches  (i  Tim. 
V  17,  18).  Paul  kept  it  before  the  attention  of  the  Churches 
of  all  the  four  Provinces — Achaia,  Macedonia,  Asia  and 
Galatia. 

The  duty  was  one  that  was  quite  novel  in  ancient  society. 
It  was  something  that  no  convert  from  Paganism  had  been 
accustomed  to.  Paul,  who  was  never  content  simply  to  con- 
vert, but  was  equally  watchful  to  organise  and  to  build  up, 
by  subsequent  care  and  watching,  his  young  Churches,^  could 
not  safely  neglect  to  provide  for  their  permanent  guidance 
when  he  was  absent,  and  the  frequency  of  his  references  to 
the  subject  attests  the  importance  that  he  attached  to  it. 

There  was  no  system  of  instruction  in  the  Pagan  re- 
ligions. The  favour  of  the  gods  was  gained  by  acts  of 
ritual,  not  by  moral  conduct.  Every  prayer  for  help  was 
a  deliberate  bargain  ;  the  worshipper  promised  certain  gifts 
to  the  god,  on  condition  that  the  god  gave  the  help  im- 
plored. The  priests  had  the  right  to  certain  dues,  a  sort 
of  percentage,  on  all  sacrifices  and  offerings,  and  these  dues 
were  paid  in  various  ways.  A  fee  had  to  be  paid  for 
entrance  into  the  temples  ;  ^  or  a  part  of  the  victim  offered 

1  Compare  Acts  XIV  22  f,  XV  41,  XVI  5,  XVIII  23,  XX  2. 

^  Mercedem  pro  aditu  sacri,  Tertullian  Apologet.  13,  and  commen- 
tators. In  the  Roman  world  generally,  fees  were  imposed  for 
entering  the  temple,  for  approaching  the  place  of  sacrifice,  for  the 


45 8  Voluntary  Liberality  to   Teachers. 

went  to  the  priest ;  or  other  methods  were  practised.  In 
one  way  or  another,  the  priesthoods  of  the  Pagan  gods 
were  so  lucrative  in  Asia  Minor  that  they  were  put  regularly 
up  to  the  auction  by  the  State,  and  knocked  down  for  a 
term  to  the  highest  bidder ;  and  various  inscriptions  record 
the  exact  prices  paid  for  them  in  some  cities.^  But  all 
these  methods  take  the  form  of  a  tariff  of  dues  upon  rites 
which  the  worshipper  performs  for  his  own  advantage. 
There  were  no  instructors,  and  no  voluntary  contributions 
for  their  support. 

Hence  the  duty  of  supporting  teachers  or  preachers  had 
to  be  continually  impressed  upon  the  attention  of  all  Paul's 
converts  from  Paganism.  The  tendency  to  fail  in  it  was 
practically  universal  ;  it  was  connected  with  a  universal 
fact  in  contemporary  society  ;  perhaps  it  was  not  uncon- 
nected with  a  universal   characteristic  of  human   nature. 

It  is  therefore  quite  unjustifiable  in  the  North  Galatian 
theorists  to  find  in  this  precept  which  Paul  delivered  to 
the  Galatians  an  indication  of  their  Celtic  nature  and  Celtic 
blood  ;  and  it  is  quite  unfair  to  quote  as  an  illustration  the 
Gaulish  tendency  to  raid  and  plunder,  or  the  Gaulish  greed 
for  money.  It  would  be  more  to  the  point  if  those  theorists 
were  to  quote  in  illustration  of  this  passage  the  parsimony 

presentation  of  gifts  or  the  offering  of  sacrifice ;  and  the  collecting 
of  the  fees  was  farmed  out  by  the  State.  Sometimes  the  right  to 
engage  in  worship  and  sacrifice  without  payment  of  fees  was  granted 
to  individuals  {immunitas  sacrum  faciendorum,  Corp.  Inscr.  Lat.  VI 
712).  A  tariff  of  charges  is  published,  Corp.  Inscr.  Lat.  VI  820, 
Henzen  6113.  This  custom  is  hardly  known  in  republican  times, 
except  that  Cicero,  Leg.  II  10,  25,  says  sumptu  ad  sacra  addito  dcorum 
aditu  arceamus. 

^  See  especially  the  great  inscription  of  Erythrae  of  the  second 
century  B.C.;  it  has  been  often  published,  see  Michel  Recudld' Inscr. 
Gr.  839. 


Voluntary  Liberality  to   Teachers.  459 

of  King  Deiotaros,  whose  presents  were  considered  by  his 
friend  and  advocate,  Cicero,  to  be  rather  mean.^  Here  we 
have  a  distinct  analogy  between  Paul's  Galatians  and  a 
great  North  Galatian  king.  But  parsimony  is  not  by  any 
means  confined  to  a  single  nation,  and  is  at  least  as  common 
and  characteristic  a  fault  in  Asia  generally  as  in  the  Celtic 
lands  ;  Armenians  and  Phoenicians  and  Jews  are  as  pen- 
urious and  economical  as  Deiotaros  or  any  other  Celt. 

One  of  the  objects  that  Paul  had  most  at  heart  was  to 
train  his  converts  in  voluntary  liberality,  as  distinguished 
from  payments  levied  on  ritual.  He  saw  what  a  powerful, 
educative  influence  such  liberality  exerts  on  the  individual, 
and  what  a  strong  unifying  influence  it  might  exert  between 
the  scattered  parts  of  the  Church.  The  contribution  in 
Antioch  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers  from  famine  in 
Judaea  (Acts  XI  29,  XH  25), — the  joint  contribution  of 
the  "Churches  of  the  Four  Provinces"  for  the  benefit  of 
the  poor  congregation  in  Jerusalem,  poor  in  comparison 
with  the  duties  and  opportunities  open  to  it^ — were  devices 
at  once  of  a  teacher  training  his  pupils,  and  of  a  statesman 
welding  countries  and  peoples  into  an  organic  unity. ^ 

There  is  no  bond  so  strong  to  hold  men  together  as  the 
common  performance  of  the  same  duties  and  acts.     The 

1  Cicero  nc^  Fflw.  IX  12,2.  I  do  not  remember  any  reference  to 
this  passage  in  the  North  Galatian  commentators,  but  should  be 
glad  to   accept  correction  on  the   point. 

^On  these  opportunities,  especially  of  showing  hospitality  to 
Jewish  or  Jewish-Christian  pilgrims,  and  thus  promoting  the  sense 
of  brotherhood  among  the  scattered  Jewish  communities,  see  Ex- 
positor, June,  1899,  p.  408  f. 

'This  has  never  been  so  well  stated  as  by  Rev.  F.  Rendal  in 
Expositor,  Nov.  1893,  p.  321  ff.  See  also  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  pp. 
287  f.,  60  f. 


460  Voluntary  Liberality  to   Teachers. 

skilful  organisers  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Augustus  and  his 
early  ministers,  devoted  themselves  to  fabricating  such 
bonds  by  uniting  the  parts  of  every  Province  with  each 
other,  and  the  separate  Provinces  with  their  common  head 
— the  Emperor — in  the  performance  of  the  ritual  of  the 
universal  imperial   religion  of  "  Rome  and   Augustus ". 

A  common  ritual  is  an  immense  power  among  men.^ 
Even  the  ritual  of  such  a  sham  as  the  imperial  religion 
was  a  great  bond  of  unity  in  the  empire.  But  Paul,  while 
he  was  fashioning  and  elaborating  the  external  forms  of 
organisation  that  should  hold  together  the  world  in  its 
brotherhood,  never  made  the  mistake  of  trusting  to  a  mere 
unity  of  ritual.  He  saw  clearly  that,  strong  as  is  the 
common  performance  of  ritual  among  men,  a  stronger  and 
more  educative  power  was  needed,  the  voluntary  common 
performance  of  duties  taken  up  and  carried  into  effect  by 
the  conscious  deliberate  purpose  of  individual  men  and 
women — not  of  men  alone  (so  he  says  to  the  Galatians 
more  emphatically^  than  to  any  other  people),  for  in  the 
perfected  Divine  unity  of  the  Church,  as  it  shall  be,  not 
as  it  is,  there  can  be  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  can  be 
no  male  and  female. 

It  is  an  important  point  that  Paul  requires  the  benefi- 
cence of  the  Galatians  to  be  extended  to  all  men,  and  not 
confined  "  to  them  that  are  of  the  household  of  faith," 
though  the  latter  have  a  special  claim.  Every  opportunity 
is  to  be  seized  of  benefiting  their  Pagan  neighbours.     It 

1  Compare,  e.g.,  the  power  of  the  Greek  Church  in  holding  together 
within  the  Turkish  Empire,  races  divided  by  distance,  by  want  of 
communication,  by  diversity  of  blood  and  of  language  {Church  in  the 
Rom.  Enip.,  p.  467). 

2  See  §  XL. 


Was  there  a  Letter  from  the  Galatians  ?     46 1 

would  be  an  interesting  thing  for  all  who  study  the  state 
of  society  in  the  Roman  Empire  to  know  how  far  this 
precept  was  carried  into  effect  in  the  Pauline  Churches. 
But  evidence  is  at  present  miserably  defective  in  regard 
to  such  practical  matters.  The  establishment  of  institu- 
tions for  the  general  benefit  of  orphans  and  exposed 
children  was  certainly  common  in  the  Early  Church.^ 

LIX 
WAS   THERE   A   LETTER   FROM    THE   GALATIANS? 

The  question  arises,  how  did  Paul  learn  what  was  occurring 
in  Galatia  ?  Obviously,  the  news  had  just  reached  him,  when 
in  the  first  excitement  he  wrote  this  Epistle.  Some  messenger 
must  have  brought  the  news.  But  the  messenger  may  have 
merely  brought  letters  from  the  Galatians,  or  he  may  have 
given  a  report  of  his  own  observations,  or  he  may  have 
done  both.     The  last  alternative  seems  most  natural. 

According  to  the  theory  already  stated,^  the  messenger 
was  probably  Timothy,  who,  landing  at  Ephesus,  had  gone 
up  to  Pisidian  Antioch  and  his  own  home  at  Lystra,  and 
then  rejoined  Paul  at  Syrian  Antioch,  bringing  with  him 
grave  intelligence. 

But,  whoever  the  messenger  was,  there  is  certainly  a 
probability  that  he  brought  with  him  a  letter,  or  a  series 
of  letters,  from  the  Galatian  Churches  :  possibly,  each 
Church  separately  wrote  to  its  founder.  It  is  not  probable 
that  any  of  Paul's  Churches  ever  allowed  a  messenger  to 
go  from  them  to  himi  without  a  letter. 

1  See  Lightfoot,  Colossians  and  Phil.,  p.  324  ;  Cities  and  Bish.  of 
Phrygia,  II,  p,  546. 

2  See  p.  243. 


462      Was  there  a  Letter  from  the  Galatians  ? 

Yet  the  first  three  and  a  half  chapters  do  not  appear  to 
be  couched  in  the  form  of  a  reply  to  a  letter.  These 
chapters  refer  as  a  whole  to  subjects  which  one  can  hardly 
fancy  any  of  the  Galatian  Churches  venturing  to  discuss 
with  their  spiritual  father  in  the  controversial  way  that  is 
implied,  for  they  are  represented  as  dissenting  from  him 
and  almost  as  resisting  him.     See  p.  430. 

Moreover,  the  usual  forms  of  a  letter,  after  the  address 
which  occupies  the  first  five  verses,  are  conspicuously 
absent  (see  §  V).  Paul  plunges  at  once  into  a  matter 
which  we  cannot  imagine  that  any  of  the  Galatians  would 
venture  to  state  directly  to  him,  viz.,  the  charge  that  he 
had  been  inconsistent  with  himself  in  the  teaching  im- 
parted on  his  two  visits,  and  that  he  was  a  time-server. 
From  this  he  is  led  into  a  historical  retrospect,  which 
gradually  changes  into  a  series  of  vehement  appeals 
designed  to  revivify  among  his  readers  the  feelings  with 
which  they  had  received  his  first  preaching  to  them. 

But,  in  the  last  two  and  a  half  chapters,  after  Paul  has 
given  vent  to  the  strong  and  irrepressible  emotions  which 
demanded  instant  expression,  his  writing  assumes  a  tone 
more  like  that  of  an  ordinary  letter,  and  he  uses  various 
expressions  which  perhaps  take  up  and  reply  to  words  or 
explanations  or  questions  addressed  to  him  directly  {i.e., 
in  the  form  of  a  letter)  by  the  Galatians. 

In  order  to  test  the  idea  that  Paul's  expression  in  this 
Epistle  was  influenced  by  the  terms  of  a  letter  from  the 
Galatic  Churches,  we  must  suppose  for  the  moment  that 
the  idea  is  true,  and  bring  together  all  that  can  be  advanced 
in  its  favour.  To  do  so  properly  would  require  the  quick, 
sure,  intuition  of  Professor  Rendel  Harris,  who  has  traced 
with   singularly  delicate   perception   the   letters   to  which 


Was  there  a  Letter  from  the  Galatians  ?     463 

Paul  was  replying  when  he  wrote  to  the  Colossians  and 
others  ;  ^  but  it  is  not  given  to  every  one  to  "  plough  with 
his  heifer ".  Possible  traces  of  a  Galatian  letter  to  Paul 
have  been  found  already  in  §§  XXXVIII,  XLIX,  L, 
LIII,  LIV. 

We  may  confidently  say  that  the  Galatian  letter  or 
letters  would  take  an  apologetic  and  explanatory  tone  : 
they  needed  some  help  and  some  guide  as  they  struggled 
along  the  difficult  way  towards  Christian  excellence  (III  3, 
cp.\\AN)  \  they  wanted  an  outward  symbol  to  mark  them 
off  from  heathen  society  (§  LIII)  ;  in  Paul's  absence  Jewish 
missionaries  had  taken  a  lively  interest  in  their  welfare 
(§  XLIX)  ;  they  found  help  and  a  teacher  in  the  Law 
and  the  ceremonies  recommended  by  those  missionaries 
(§  XXXVIII,  to  which  Paul  refers,  "Ye  that  desire  to 
be  under  the  Law,"  IV  21) ;  but,  in  spite  of  this  movement, 
they  retained  their  strong  sense  of  duty  to  Paul,  and  they 
were  resolved  not  to  wrong  him,  even  when  they  looked  to 
others  for  help. 

It  has  been  shown  that  some  of  Paul's  words  should  be 
treated  as  echoes  of  Galatian  statements.  He  appreciates 
their  need  of  some  one  to  take  interest  in  them  when  he  is 
far  away  (IV  18)  ;  but  he  desires  that  the  interest  should 
be  for  their  good.  The  project  is  here  foreshadowed  that 
a  trusty  representative  should  be  left  among  them  at  his 
next  visit  (to  which  he  points  in  IV  20).  On  the  third 
journey  this  project  was  surely  carried  out.  May  we  not 
guess  that  Silas  was  the  representative?    He  was  peculiarly 

'^Expositor,  Sept.-Dec,  1898.  But  when  he  reaches  the  result  that 
Eph.  was  not  a  circular  letter,  I  begin  to  doubt  :  the  reasons  proving 
that  it  was  a  circular  letter  seem  too  strong  to  be  overthrown  by  an 
argument,  which  is  of  so  subjective  a  character. 


464      IVas  there  a  Letter  fro7n  the  Galatians  ? 

suited  to  combat  Judaism,  as  being  at  once  Jew  and  Roman. 
He  does  not  appear  in  the  rest  of  the  third  journey.  Yet 
he  probably  had  great  knowledge  of  Asia  Minor,  for  he  was 
selected  to  carry  the  Epistle  of  Peter  to  the  Churches  of 
that  whole  land. 

Perhaps  the  fact  that  the  first  three  and  a  half  chapters 
are  obviously  prompted  by  the  report  of  a  delegate,  and 
not  by  a  letter  of  the  Galatians,  may  seem  to  many  to 
constitute  a  proof  that  the  whole  Epistle  should  be  taken 
in  the  same  way  ;  and  it  must  be  conceded  that  nothing  in 
the  Epistle  imperatively  demands  that  a  Galatian  letter 
lay  before  Paul  as  he  wrote.  The  knowledge  which  he 
shows  of  the  Galatian  desires  and  aims  may  have  been 
gained  from  the  report  of  a  trusty  messenger  like  Timothy. 

But,  if  Paul  trusts  here  solely  to  the  report  of  a  messenger, 
we  may  feel  sure  that  the  messenger  was  one  in  whose 
knowledge,  judgment,  and  sympathy  with  all  parties  Paul 
had  perfect  confidence.  He  treats  the  messenger's  report 
of  the  catchwords  of  the  Galatian  movement  as  indubitably 
correct ;  and  he  feels  as  certain  on  this  point  as  if  he  had 
before  him  a  formal  statement  in  the  Galatians'  own  words. 

Such  a  messenger  Timothy  was. 


LX 

THE  LARGE  LETTERS  (VI  11-17). 

As  in  several  other  cases,  Paul  ends  with  a  peculiarly 
direct  and  personal  appeal  to  his  correspondents,  summing 
up  afresh  the  critical  points  in  his  letter. 

Habitually  Paul  employed  a  secretary,  to  whom  he 
dictated  his  letters  ;   but  his  custom  was  to  add  a  parting 


The  Lai^ge  Letters.  465 

message  with  his  own  hand  as  a  mark  of  authenticity, 
"  the  salutation  of  me,  Paul,  with  mine  own  hand,  which  is 
the  token  in  every  Epistle"  (2  Thess.  Ill  17).  He  some- 
times marks  this  concluding  message  as  his  own  by  the 
words  as  well  as  by  the  handwriting,  as  in  Colossians  IV 
18,  I  Corinthians  XVI  21.  Sometimes  he  trusts  to  the 
handwriting  alone,  and  we  may  confidently  take  such  con- 
cluding paragraphs  as  Romans  XVI  25-37,  Ephesians  IV 
23-24,  as  the  parting  messages  in  Paul's  hand,  though  in 
some  cases  it  is  difficult  to  detect  the  point  of  transition. 

In  no  other  case  is  the  point  where  Paul  takes  the  pen 
marked  so  emphatically  as  here  ;  and  in  no  other  case  is 
the  parting  message  so  important.  Paul  returns  to  the 
primary  subject  after  having  diverged  from  it  in  his  eager- 
ness to  give  counsel  and  advice  to  the  Galatian  Churches. 
He  adds  with  his  own  hand  a  brief  and  pointed  resume  of 
the  leading  thoughts  in  the  letter ;  and  he  arrests  attention 
and  concentrates  it  on  the  resume  at  ortce  by  the  opening 
words :  "  Look  you  in  what  big  letters  I  wrote  with  my 
own  hand  ". 

The  tense  "  I  wrote "  is  an  epistolary  usage,  especially 
common  in  Latin,  but  also  found  in  Greek  :  the  writer 
puts  himself  at  the  point  of  view  of  his  readers,  so  that  his 
own  action  seems  to  him  to  lie  in  the  past,  as  it  must  be 
to  them  when  they  read  it.  Paul  rarely  employs  this  epis- 
tolary tense, ^  but  here  it  is  forced  on  him  by  the  opening 
word  "  Look  ".  He  imagines  himself  to  be  standing  beside 
his  correspondents  as  they  are  reading  his  letter,  and  saying 
to  them,  "  Look  what  big  letters  Paul  used  here  " 

It  has  been  inferred  by  many  from  this  sentence  that 

^  A  case  in  Philemon  19. 
30 


466  The  Large  Letters. 

Paul's  ordinary  handwriting  was  very  large.  But  if  that 
were  so,  it  would  be  unnecessary  for  him  to  say  both  "  with 
my  own  hand  "  and  "  in  big  letters ".  Moreover,  those 
who  suppose  that  a  trifling  detail,  such  as  the  shape  or 
size  of  Paul's  ordinary  handwriting,  could  find  room  in  his 
mind  as  he  wrote  this  letter,  are  mistaking  his  character. 
The  size  of  the  letters  must  have  some  important  bearing 
on  the  parting  message,  or  it  would  not  have  been  men- 
tioned. We  must  here  look  for  the  cause,  not  in  any 
personal  trait,  but  in  some  principle  of  ancient  life  and 
custom. 

In  modern  times  publicity  for  documents  of  importance 
is  attained  by  multiplication  of  copies.  In  ancient  times 
that  method  was  impossible :  anything  that  had  to  be 
brought  before  the  notice  of  the  public  must  be  exposed 
in  a  prominent  position  before  the  eyes  of  all,  engraved  on 
some  lasting  material  such  as  bronze  or  marble.  When  a 
document  was  thus  exposed  in  public,  attention  was  often 
called  to  some  specially  important  point,  especially  at  the 
beginning  or  end,  by  the  use  of  larger  letters.^ 

On  this  familiar  analogy  Paul  calls  attention  to  the 
following  sentences  as  containing  the  critical  topics  of 
the  letter,  and  being  therefore  in  bold,  striking  lettering. 
Lightfoot,  who  adopts  this  view,^  is  probably  right  in  taking 
vyulv  as  an  ethical  dative,  translating  "  how  large,  mark  you  ". 

Dr.  Deissmann's  interpretation  of  the  "  large  letters,"  as 
belonging  to  the  region  of  pure  comedy,  has  been  alluded 
to  in  §  XXII.     It  is  rightly  rejected  by  Meyer-Sieffert. 

1  Examples  at  Pisidian  Antioch  in  Sterrett's  Epigr.  Journey,  Nos.  97, 
99,  loi,  102,  108,  etc.;  others  are  quoted  by  Meyer-Sieffert;  others 
may  be  found  in  Pompeian  advertisements. 

2  He  does  not,  however,  mention  the  epigraphic  custom,  but  treats 
the  device  as  special  to  Paul. 


The  Parting  Message.  467 

LXI 

THE  PARTING  MESSAGE. 

What,  then,  are  the  points  which  are  thus  placarded,  as 
it  were,  before  the  eyes  of  the  Galatians  ?  They  may  be 
specified  in  a  rough  list  as  follows  : — 

1.  The  advocates  of  circumcision  are  persons  who  wish 
"  to  make  a  pretentious  display "  in  "  external  rites " 
(without  a  thought  about  spiritual  realities). 

2.  Their  object  is  to  avoid  persecution  for  the  cross  of 
Christ.  There  is  here  no  thought  of  persecution  by  the 
Roman  State  :  it  is  solely  persecution  by  the  Jews  that  is 
in  the  apostle's  mind.  The  State,  if  it  punished  Christians 
as  such,  would  be  equally  ready  to  punish  circumcised  and 
uncircumcised  Christians.  We  are  here  carried  back  to  a 
time  when  persecution  of  Christians  existed  only  in  the 
form  of  action  originated  by  Jews,  who  on  various  pleas 
iuduced  cither  imperial  officials  or  city  magistrates  to  inter- 
fere against  their  personal  enemies.  This  takes  us  back 
to  a  very  early  stage  in  history  :  except  in  Palestine,  such 
persecution  was  very  unlikely  to  last  much  later  than  the 
decision  of  Gallio  (Acts  XVIII,  15),  which  constituted  a 
precedent.  In  Southern  Phrygia  and  Lycaonia,  along  the 
line  of  the  great  road  between  Ephesus  and  Syria,  where 
Jews  were  specially  numerous  and  influential,  persecution 
of  that  kind  was  most  likely  to  constitute  a  real  danger. 

3.  The  champions  of  circumcision,  so  far  from  being 
eager  that  the  Gentile  converts  should  keep  the  whole 
Law,  were  themselves  far  from  keeping  it  completely ;  but 
they  desired  to  subject  the  Galatians  to  that  rite  in  order 
that  they  might  "gain  credit  with  the  Jews  for  proselytising" 


468  The  Parting  Message. 

successfully,  and  thus  increasing  the  influence,  wealth  and 
power  of  the  nation  (VI  13). 

4.  Paul  personally  desired  no  credit  except  in  the  cross. 
He  himself  regarded  circumcision  as  an  external  and  in 
itself  valueless  ceremony.  We  may  gather  that  he  con- 
sidered the  rite  to  have  some  symbolical  value  for  the  Jews, 
but  absolutely  none  for  the  Gentiles :  to  the  latter  it  was 
positively  hurtful  in  so  far  as  it  tended  to  withdraw  their 
attention  from  the  real  spiritual  fact,  that  a  remaking  and 
regeneration  of  man's  nature  was  essential. 

The  emphasis  which  is  several  times  laid  on  the  burden- 
some nature  of  the  Law,  and  the  inability  of  the  Jews 
themselves  to  observe  its  provisions  and  requirements,  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  the  question  that 
was  being  fought  out  within  the  Christian  Church  about 
A.D.  50. 

Peter  spoke  of  the  Law  as  "  a  yoke  which  neither  our 
fathers  nor  we  were  able  to  bear"  (Acts  XV  10).  Paul 
assumes  in  this  Epistle  as  a  fundamental  fact  familiar  to 
the  Galatians  that  no  person  can  fulfil  the  law  entirely, 
but  that  all  are  liable  to  the  curse  pronounced  against  any 
one  who  fails  in  any  point  of  the  Law  (III  10,  compare  II 
14)  ;  and  it  was  certainly  on  this  impossibility  that  Paul's 
personal  deep  conviction  of  his  own  permanent  sinful  con- 
dition had  rested  before  his  conversion.^ 

The  assumption  that  this  fundamental  impossibility  was 
a  familiar  matter  of  knowledge  to  the  Galatian  Christians^ 

1  See  §  XXX.. 

2  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  Epistle  does  not  move  in  the 
line  of  new  arguments  that  Paul  was  right  and  the  judaisers  wrong: 
its  power  rests  in  its  being  a  revivification  in  the  Galatians  of  their 
former  thoughts  and  knowledge  and  experience.     See  §  XXI. 


The  Parting  Message.  469 

can  hardly  rest  only  on  a  universal  admission  of  such  im- 
possibility. It  must  rest  on  former  teaching ;  and  if  so, 
the  teaching  must  be  that  of  the  second  journey,  when  the 
frank  and  complete  admission  made  by  Peter,  and  the  tacit 
agreement  of  the  apostolic  decree  in  the  practical  truth  of 
his  admission,  were  set  forth  to  the  Galatians.  We  cannot 
doubt  that,  when  Paul  delivered  this  decree  to  the  Galatian 
congregations  to  keep  (Acts  XVI  4),  he  explained  to  them 
fully  the  circumstances  of  its  enactment,  and  the  meaning 
which  they  should  attach  to  it. 

Sufficient  attention  has  hardly  been  given  by  the  com- 
mentators to  this  point.  Peter's  words  to  the  Council 
could  not  have  carried  much  weight  unless  they  had  been 
too  obviously  true  for  open  dispute :  there  must  have  been 
a  belief  among  the  more  reasonable  Jews,  even  among 
those  who  were  personally  strict,  that  the  Law  was  too 
burdensome  for  practical  life. 

What  was  the  reason  for  this  belief?  It  must  have  lain 
in  the  new  circumstances  of  the  Jews  amidst  the  Roman 
Empire.  A  Law,  which  had  been  possible  in  Palestine 
only  for  the  few  most  elevated  spirits,  became  too  obviously 
impossible  amid  the  wider  society  of  the  empire,  when 
every  reasoning  Jew  perceived  the  magnificent  prospects 
that  were  open  to  his  people,  if  they  accomodated  them- 
selves in  some  degree  to  their  situation  in  the  Roman 
world.  Those  prospects  are  both  material  and  spiritual. 
The  Jews  as  a  race  have  never  been  blind  to  prospects  of 
material  success  for  the  individual  or  the  nation ;  and  the 
peace,  the  order,  the  security  of  property,  the  ease  and 
certainty  and  regularity  of  intercourse  in  the  Roman  world, 
with  the  consequent  possibilities  of  trade  and  finance  on 
a  vast  scale,  opened  up  a  dazzling  prospect  of  wealth  and 


470  The  Parting  Message. 

power.  Of  old,  wherever  there  was  anything  approaching 
to  free  competition,  the  Semitic  traders  of  Carthage  had 
beaten  Rome  in  the  open  market;  and  the  Romans  ob- 
tained command  of  the  Mediterranean  trade  only  by  force 
of  arms.  The  Jews  could  now  repeat  the  success  of  their 
Carthaginian  cousins. 

There  were  also  Jews  whose  vision  was  filled  entirely 
with  the  spiritual  prospects  of  the  race,  the  influence  that 
it  was  exerting,  and  might  in  a  hundredfold  greater  degree 
exercise,  on  thought  and  religion,  especially  among  the 
loftier  minds  of  the  Empire.  But  if  they  were  to  exercise 
properly  their  legitimate  influence  in  the  Roman  world, 
they  could  not  carry  out  completely  the  Law  with  its  fully 
developed  ceremonial :  they  must  distinguish  in  it  between 
that  which  was  spiritually  real  and  that  which  was  mere 
external  and  unessential  ceremonial. 

The  question  with  regard  to  accommodation  to  their  new 
situation  could  not  be  evaded  by  the  Jews.  The  Sadducees 
answered  it  by  perfect  readiness  to  concede  anything.  The 
Pharisees  originally  assumed  the  impossible  attitude  of  a 
firm  resolve  to  concede  nothing.  Paul's  position  was  that 
nothing  should  be  conceded  that  was  spiritually  real  or 
symbolically  valuable,  but  that  mere  external  and  unessen- 
tial ceremonial  should  be  sacrificed  ;  and  he  held  that  this 
was  the  attitude  of  the  true  Pharisee  (Acts  XXIII  6). 


LXII 

THE  CONCLUDING  BLESSING  AND  DENUNCIATION  (VI.  16-17). 

As  the  letter  began  in  a  style  unique  with  Paul,  and 
unlike  the  ordinary  epistolary  forms,   so  it  ends.     Other 


The  Concluding  Blessing  and  Denunciation.     471 

letters,  as  a  rule,  end  with  a  blessing  or  benediction.  Here 
the  blessing  is  restricted,  and  in  the  restriction  a  negative 
is  implied  :  "  and  as  many  as  shall  walk  by  this  rule,  peace 
be  on  them  and  mercy  "  ;  then  are  added  the  more  gracious 
words,  "  and  on  the  Israel  of  God "  (though  even  here 
there  lurks  a  contrast  to  the  Israel  after  the  flesh). 

But  there  follows  a  note  of  denunciation  :  "  From  hence- 
forth let  no  man  trouble  me ;  for  I  bear  branded  on  my 
body  the  marks  of  Jesus  ".  In  i  Corinthians  XVI,  21-24, 
where  there  is  mingled  with  the  blessing  a  cufse,  "  if  any 
man  loveth  not  the  Lord,  let  him  be  accursed,"  the  more 
emphatic  final  blessing  and  expression  of  love  to  all  comes 
after  the  curse,  and  swallows  it  up.  But  here  after  a 
restricted  benediction,  comes  a  denunciation,  combined 
with  a  strong  assertion  of  his  authority  as  the  servant  of 
Christ — too  emphatic  to  be  merged  and  forgotten  in  the 
short  blessing  conveyed  in  the  final  verse. 

What  is  the  reason  of  this  most  marked  characteristic  ? 
Is  it  merely  due  to  indignation  (which  the  commentators 
make  out  to  be  one  of  the  strongest  features  in  the  letter)? 
Was  the  writer  so  angry  that  even  his  concluding  blessing 
is  marred  by  a  note  of  denunciation  and  self-assertion? 
From  V  13  onwards  he  has,  apparently,  forgotten  his  in- 
dignation, and  has  impressed  on  the  Galatians  in  successive 
paragraphs,  from  various  points  of  view,  the  supreme  duty 
of  love,  the  evil  of  wrath,  enmity,  strife.  Can  we  suppose 
that  immediately  after  this  he  gives  the  lie  to  his  own 
teaching  by  letting  his  indignation  again  get  the  upper 
hand,  and  make  itself  felt  in  what  are  almost  the  last  words 
of  the  letter  ? 

It  cannot  be  so.     This  paragraph  is  the  crowning  proof 
that  it  is  a  mistake  to  read  indignation  as  the  chief  feature 


472      The  Concluding  Blessing  and  Denunciation. 

of  this  letter,  and  that  the  interpretation  advocated  above 
in  §  XXII  is 'true :  though  "the  authoritative  tone,  of 
course,  is  there,"  yet  the  emotion  that  drives  him  on 
throughout  the  letter  "is  intense  and  overpowering  love 
and  pity  for  specially  beloved  children  ". 

But  to  deal  with  those  children  one  must  always  use  the 
note  of  authority.  Here,  as  everywhere  throughout  the 
letter,  one  recognises,  not  the  proud  and  sensitive  Celtic 
aristocracy,  but  the  simple,  slow,  easy-going,  obedient, 
contented,  good-tempered  and  rather  stupid  people  of  the 
Phrygian  country,  the  ground-stock  of  the  Anatolian  plateau. 


LXIII 

THE  STIGMATA  OF  JESUS  (VI  17). 

The  idea  that  these  were  marks  similar  to  those  inflicted 
on  the  Saviour's  body  at  the  Crucifixion  belongs  to  the 
"Dark  Ages"  of  scholarship.  The  marks  are  those  cut 
deep  on  Paul's  body  by  the  lictor's  rods  at  Pisidian 
Antioch  ^  and  the  stones  at  Lystra,  the  scars  that  mark 
him  as  the  slave  of  Jesus.  This  custom  to  mark  slaves  by 
scars — produced  by  cuts,  prevented  from  closing  as  they 
healed,  so  as  to  leave  broad  wounds — is  familiar  even  yet 
to  the  observant  traveller,^  though  since  slavery  was 
brought  to  an  end  in  Turkey  cases  are  now  few,  and  will 
after  a  few  years  have  ceased  to  exist. 

The  same  custom  existed  in  the  country  from  ancient 
times.     It  was  practised  on  the  temple  slaves  from  time 

1  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  pp.  107,  304- 

-  Mrs.  Ramsay,  Everyday  Life  iti  Turkey,  p.  7. 


The  Stigmata  of  Jesus.  473 

immemorial  ;  ^  and  the  Galatian  slave  owners  practised  it 
on  their  slaves,  as  Artemidorus  mentions,  having  adopted 
it  from  their  predecessors  in  the  land,^ 

The  idea  suggested  by  Dr.  Deissmann,  Bibelstudien^  p. 
266  ff.,  that  the  marks  of  Jesus  are  prophylactic,  guarding 
the  bearer  of  them  against  trouble  and  evil,  is  out  of  keep- 
ing with  the  spirit  of  the  letter  and  with  the  tone  of  this 
passage.  Meyer-Sieffert's  latest  edition  discusses  and  re- 
jects that  interpretation  (ninth  edition,  1899,  p.  364). 

It  is  not  easy  for  us  in  modern  times  to  catch  and 
understand  clearly  the  thought  in  VI  17  :  yet  it  was  to 
Paul  perfectly  natural  and  simple.  The  nineteenth  century 
must  often  fail  to  understand  fully  the  first.  This  sentence, 
in  its  emphatic  position,  with  its  impressive  language  and 
its  tone  of  denunciation  and  warning,  carries  more  meaning 
"  than  meets  the  ear ".  Obviously,  it  must  appeal  to 
something  that  lay  deep  in  the  hearts  and  memories  of  the 
Galatians.  They  knew,  fully  and  absolutely,  that  Paul 
was  the  servant  of  Jesus,  or,  as  he  says,  how  deeply 
branded  in  his  flesh  are  the  marks  that  prove  him  Jesus' 
slave  (for  in  ancient  times  the  slave  was  far  more  closely 
bound  by  feeHng  and  affection  to  his  master  than  a  hired 
servant — strange  as  that  may  seem  to  us).  They  have 
only  to  make  that  fact  clear  in  their  minds,  and  they  will 
at  once  understand  how  completely  Paul  is  the  messenger 
of  Jesus,  how  entirely  the  Divine  message  has  taken  pos- 
session of  his  nature  and  his  whole  being,  how  thoroughly 
the  Gospel  that  he  brought  them  in  the  beginning  was  the 

1  The  evidence  of  Lucian,  de  dea  Syria,  59,  about  the  temple 
slaves  at  Syrian  Hierapolis,  may  be  taken  as  proof  of  a  general 
custom. 

■■*  See  p.  84. 


474  '^^^  Stigmata  of  Jesus. 

Divine  Word,  how  necessary  it  is  for  them  to  come  back  to 
that  first  Gospel. 

To  understand  this  verse  you  must  grasp  the  Epistle  in 
its  entirety.  You  must  feel  that  it  is  not  a  carefully  framed 
series  of  sentences  and  paragraphs,  but  is  an  absolute  unity, 
a  single  expression,  a  crystallisation  of  Paul's  mind  at  a 
moment  of  intense  feeling,  or  (to  change  the  metaphor)  a 
volcanic  flood  of  thought  poured  forth  in  one  moment  and 
in  one  effort. 

It  was  said  above  (p.  288  f )  that  II  i-io  is  really  a  single 
sentence.  One  might  almost  say  that  the  whole  Epistle  is 
really  a  single  sentence.  You  feel  at  the  point  we  have 
now  reached  that  the  Epistle  is  like  a  living  organism,  so 
fully  conscious  that  every  part  feels  and  vibrates  to  the 
slightest  touch  on  any  other  part.  It  is  the  word  of  Paul  ; 
and  one  remembers  that,  as  Plato  says,  word  is  spoken 
thought,  thought  unspoken  word. 

But,  in  order  to  approach  to  understanding  VI  17,  we 
must  hold  together  in  our  mind  especially  I  8-12,  15  f.,  II 
19  f.,  IV  12-20. 

LXIV 

RESULT  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 

So  ends  this  unique  and  marvellous  letter,  which  em- 
braces in  its  six  short  chapters  such  a  variety  of  vehement 
and  intense  emotions  as  could  probably  not  be  paralleled 
in  any  other  work.  It  lays  bare  and  open  in  the  most 
extraordinary  degree  the  nature  both  of  the  writer  and  of 
the  readers. 

And  this  letter  is  pronounced  by  some  of  our  friends  in 


Result  of  the  Epistle.  475 

Europe  to  be  an  accretion  of  scraps  round  and  between 
bits  of  genuine  original  Pauline  writing.  How  blind  and 
dead  to  all  sense  of  literature  and  to  all  knowledge  of  life 
and  human  nature  must  the  man  be  who  so  judges — a  mere 
pedant  confined  within  the  narrow  walls  and  the  close 
atmosphere  of  a  schoolroom  and  a  study ! 

To  argue  with  such  critics — happily,  for  the  credit  of 
modern  scholarship,  a  hardly  perceptible  remnant — would 
be  as  absurd  as  it  would  have  been  for  Paul  to  employ  to 
the  Galatians  a  series  of  arguments  addressed  to  the  intellect. 
In  such  cases  one  must  see  and  feel.  Those  who  cannot 
see  and  feel  for  themselves  cannot  be  reached  by  argument. 
You  must  kindle  in  them  life  and  power.  Paul  could  do 
that  for  the  Galatians.     Who  will  do  it  in  the  present  day  ? 

What  was  the  result  of  the  letter  to  the  Galatians  ?  Was 
it  a  success  or  a  failure  ? 

It  has  been  suggested  by  some  North  Galatian  theorists, 
in  explanation  of  the  silence  of  the  historian  Luke  about 
their  supposed  Churches  of  North  Galatia,  that  the  Epistle 
was  a  failure,  that  the  Churches  of  Galatia  were  lost  to 
Paulinistic  Christianity,  and  that  the  painful  episode  was 
passed  over  lightly  by  a  historian  whose  sympathies  were 
so  strongly  on  Paul's  side. 

That  is  the  only  serious  and  reasonable  attempt  to 
explain  the  silence  of  Luke-  as  to  the  North  Galatian 
Churches.  The  customary  explanation,  that  the  silence 
is  merely  one  more  of  the  strange  gaps  that  seem  to  North 
Galatian  theorists  to  be.  the  most  remarkable  feature  in 
the  Acts,  is  really  an  appeal  to  unreason.  Almost  all  the 
supposed  gaps  are  the  result  of  the  North  Galatian  theory, 
directly  or  indirectly,  and  have  no  existence  when  that 
theory  is  discarded ;  and  the  rest  have  been  shown  to  be 


47  6  Result  of  the  Epistle. 

due  to  some  other  misapprehension.^  The  "Gap-theory" 
first  creates  the  gaps,  and  then  infers  that  the  historian 
cannot  be  judged  according  to  the  ordinary  rules  because 
his  work  is  full  of  "  gaps  ".  In  regard  to  any  other  historian 
of  good  rank  and  class,  the  principle  is  admitted  that  an 
interpretation  which  rests  on  the  supposition  of  an  unin- 
telligible gap  must  yield  to  an  explanation  which  shows 
order  and  method  and  purpose  ruling  in  the  work. 

But  the  explanation  quoted  above  is  reasonable,  and  calls 
for  serious  consideration.  It  does  not,  however,  stand  the 
test  of  careful  dispassionate  examination. 

The  confidence  that  Paul  expresses  as  to  the  issue,  V  lo, 
is  not  a  hasty  and  rash  trust  in  his  own  power.  It  comes 
out  at  the  close  of  a  careful  weighing  of  the  situation,  in 
which  Paul  looks  into  the  hearts  of  his  old  converts,  and 
reaches  the  full  certainty  and  knowledge  that  he  has  them 
with  him.  His  knowledge  of  human  nature  gives  him  the 
confidence  that  he  expresses. 

Moreover,  the  history  of  Christianity  in  Asia  Minor 
during  the  immediately  following  period  shows  that  the 
victory  was  won  once  and  for  ever.  The  question  never 
again  emerges.  A  few  years  later,  we  see  what  was  the 
state  of  another  Phrygian  Church,  that  of  Colossae,  in  which 
Judaic  influence  was  very  strong.  But  it  is  clear  that  the 
Galatian  difficulty  never  affected  them.  The  Epistle  to 
the  Colossians  is  "  specially  anti-Judaistic,"  ^  but  there  is 
nothing  in  it  to  suggest  that  they  had  ever  thought  of  the 
Mosaic  Law  as  binding  on  them,  That  point  had  been 
definitely  settled ;  and  the  Judaistic  tendency  had  taken 
another  and  more  subtle  direction.     The  Judaic  rules  and 

^  St.  Paul  the,  Trav.,  passim. 

^  Hort,  Romans  and  Ephesians,  p.  192. 


Result  of  the  Epistle.  477 

prohibitions  did  not  appear  to  the  Colossians  as  imperative 
commands  of  God  which  must  be  obeyed,  but  as  philosophic 
principles  which  appealed  to  their  intellect  and  reason. 

But  if  the  first  Pauline  Churches  that  were  attacked  had 
accepted  and  endorsed  the  principle  that  the  Mosaic  Law 
was  binding  on  them,  their  example  would  have  been  a 
serious  danger  to  the  neighbouring  Phrygian  Churches  of 
the  Lycus  valley,  and  could  hardly  have  failed  to  secure 
at  least  careful  attention  for  the  view  which  they  had 
accepted. 

Finally,  to  regard  this  letter  as  unsuccessful  is  to  de- 
spair of  Paul.  The  letter,  with  its  commanding  and 
almost  autocratic  tone — though  I  feel  and  confess  that 
these  adjectives  are  too  strong,  and  ignore  the  emotion, 
and  sympathy,  and  love  which  breathe  through  the  words 
and  take  much  of  the  sting  from  them — is  one  that  could 
be  justified  only  by  success.  If  it  failed,  then  it  deserved 
to  fail.  No  man  has  any  right  to  use  such  a  tone  to  other 
men,  unless  it  is  the  suitable  and  best  tone  for  their  good  ; 
and  the  issue  is  the  only  test  whether  it  was  suitable  and 
best.  Paul's  knowledge  of  human  nature  in  his  converts  is 
staked  on  the  success  of  the  letter.     See  §  XL 

Is  it  not  clear,  then,  that  Paul's  appeal  succeeded  ?  The 
letter  fulfilled  its  purpose  of  rekindling  the  old  feelings  in 
the  Galatic  Churches.  Paul's  confident  expectation  was 
justified.  Acts  completes  the  natural  result  of  the  Epistle. 
Soon  after,  the  effect  was  confirmed  by  Paul's  personal 
presence  ^  among  these  Galatians  :  he  went  through  Galatic 
Lycaonia  and  Galatic  Phrygia  in  order  from  first  to  last, 
"stablishing  all  the  disciples"  (Acts  XVIII  23),  see  p.  404. 

1  Accompanied,  as  I  believe,  by  Titus  :  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  p.  285. 


478  Result  of  the  Epistle. 

The  great  struggle  was  won  ;  the  religion  of  the  first 
Roman  province  on  the  road  to  the  West  was  determined 
as  free  and  non-Judaistic  ;  and  that  meant  that  the  religion 
of  the  Roman  Empire  was  determined.  Can  we  doubt 
that  this  struggle  was  critical  and  decisive?  If  Paul  had 
been  vanquished  in  the  first  Province  that  he  entered,  and 
in  the  first  Churches  that  he  founded,  he  would  have  been 
vanquished  definitely  ;  but  the  first  great  victory  made  the 
remaining  stages  easier.  It  is  obvious  that  the  Church  irl 
Corinth  passed  through  a  Judaic  struggle,  but  that  it 
surmounted  it  far  more  easily.  So  with  the  Churches  of 
Asia.  They  were  distinctively  free  and  Pauline  in  character; 
and  it  is  evident  that  the  Galatic  struggle  was  practically 
conclusive  for  them. 

Taken  in  conjunction  with  later  evidence,  we  can  thus 
make  some  steps  towards  a  picture  of  Christian  and  Jewish- 
Christian  history  in  Asia  Minor.  But  on  the  North  Gala- 
tian  theory  the  issue  of  the  Epistle  remains  as  obscure  as 
the  Churches  to  which  it  was  addressed.  The  Churches 
are  created  to  receive  the  Epistle.  After  it  is  received  they 
vanish,  and  leave  not  a  trace  behind. 


Note. — It  was  intended  to  add  a  discussion  of  some  technical 
points,  especially  the  geographical  sense  of  GalattcHS ;  but  the  effects 
of  an  accident  in  September,  i8gg,  made  it  impossible  to  complete 
the  notes.  Some  references  forward  to  the  intended  notes  remain 
in  the  text.  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Askwith  treats  the  phrase  rfjv  ^pvylav 
Kai  TaXaTiKTjv  p^w^ai/  skilfully;  but  I  have  not  seen  his  recent  book. 


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